But, Steve, nice to see you have the guts to actually show up instead of starting threads on other forums discussing things without the author there to make comments.
I have a signfiicant number of sources in my article. Are you suggesting that everyone is wrong, but you're right? Oh, I forgot...that's been your modus operandi for years, and why to this day no one listens to you despite your rants and raves.
Look at Reef Central statistics. It is, by far, the largest board on reefkeeping. It's in the top 100 internet sites (Number 73, down from 72 a week ago) If you look at the web stats for the site alone, with over 110,000 members, and you can go to bigboards to see this, you'll see a trend that closely parallels the increase inhobbyists, including number of new views per day, members, posts, etc. I'd say 110,000 is a relatively large sample size for a population and that when you deal with these numbers you are probably getting a representative sample. Also, why are there local extirpations of fishes over the past few years? Why are Potter's populations down 23% and Z flaviscens down up to 70% from collection sites despite their collection for over 50 years? Why are thee increases in aquarium fishers that parallel the increases in the hobby and the trade? Why are several new exporting nations seeking guidance to control a rapidly increasing aquarium fishery because of the threats to their resources? Why has the aquarium trade, for the first time, been a priority funding guideline for NOAA's coral reef conservation grant program? Because we've run out of real threats or because the aquarium trade really is a threat or because coral reef managers just really want to hassle the hobby for fun? I have gone out with one of the most well respected collectors and Florida and watched him systematically eliminate every single anemone and Ricordea he came across, shun the idea of propagating them in the field, and now there may be local extinctions of the anemones in US waters. Al lies? Everyone is just wrong, and you are right? Dude, you really need to realize that you don't have all the answers and you might actually help make a difference to the reefs and the trade.
So, we have scientific papers, grey literature reports from exporting nations, US agencies, aquarist surveys, import data, and other sources concurring, and then a Pet Industry source and some industry people's opinions on the other side. OK....I'll just leave it to the readers of this thread who to believe.
Show me the proof. I'll gladly stand corrected.
