Ethical/Responsible Wholesalers

[GreshamH]

You got my attention, any examples of that?

Higher value of the reef then that of, say, food fish (for sale) or mining reefs for building materials. You haven't heard that argument before? All the reef aquarium NGO's have used it.

 

[Luiz Rocha]

Higher value of the reef then that of, say, food fish (for sale) or mining reefs for building materials. You haven't heard that argument before? All the reef aquarium NGO's have used it.

No, haven't heard it, links? As much as I like the idea, I doubt aquarium collectors would have any power against mining companies. As far as food fisheries go, a healthy reef is also beneficial for that, but we all know that everyone wants to make as much profit as possible in the short term...

I do think that the aquarium trade is much better at self-regulating than the food fisheries. For a fisherman, it doesn't matter how much grouper he fishes, he will sell every pound for a good price. But for aquarium fish, if the supply becomes too high, prices drop, and that hurts collectors.

 

[GreshamH]

No, haven't heard it, links? As much as I like the idea, I doubt aquarium collectors would have any power against mining companies. As far as food fisheries go, a healthy reef is also beneficial for that, but we all know that everyone wants to make as much profit as possible in the short term...

I do think that the aquarium trade is much better at self-regulating than the food fisheries. For a fisherman, it doesn't matter how much grouper he fishes, he will sell every pound for a good price. But for aquarium fish, if the supply becomes too high, prices drop, and that hurts collectors.

Mining, no... but when it comes to going out to blast fish for less money, or collect MO for more money, which do you think would win?

Prices dropping typically hurts the exporter. The collectors tend to get a shittty pay no matter what the exporter gets

 

[GreshamH]

Just read Marine Aquarium Councils published stuff, International Marinelife Alliance or even the state if reefs published by NOAA in the mid 2000's. All of them tout the more money for reef line.

I know for a fact it does pay better in some areas. In Baja our collectors if not collecting for us, would be poaching the last few big groupers, and abalone... or working for the cartels. There's little work otherwise. This is in Baja, islanders have even less chances of making money in some places.

 

[fishome25]

Luiz here is a good article on the topic.
http://www.reefs.com/forum/reefs-magazine/170078-why-point-origin-matters.html

 

[Spyderturbo007]

Does anyone know if this is a legitimate statement, regarding collection geography? I pulled it from the article that fishome25 posted above.

We know, for example, a fish sourced from smaller developing island nations like Fiji and Solomon Islands is far more likely to have been sustainably and ethically harvested than an animal sourced from Indonesia or the Philippines. This is, in part, because supply chains in the smaller countries are often shorter and more transparent. While there are sustainable aquarium fisheries in Indonesia and the Philippines, the lack of supply chain transparency, as well as the lack of enforcement of existing laws in those countries, makes purchasing an animal from these countries a much riskier proposition at this time.

 

[GreshamH]

Yes... you can add Hawaii and Australia to that as well.

 

[accordsirh22]

i try to order everything captive bred/propagated whenever possible. whenever i order stuff that has to be wild caught, i always try to go hawaiian/australian/fiji for that reason. indo stuff is cheaper and usually less healthy. speaking as a retailer, dealing with wholesalers

 

[tigerjace]

you won't find that info readily available from most wholesalers. However, i have dealt with eri in the past, and always found their fish and inverts to arrive in excellent shape with high rates of survival.

+1

 

[sdcfish]

Good topic…..

We always have labeled our fish with the origin next to the item name….F for Fiji, B for Bali etc….T/R for Tanked Raised……customers can choose their fish by location if they are concerned about origins or prefer a specific origin. For example, right now we have Multi-bar Angels (Paracentropyge multifacsiata) spelling? some from Bali and some from Marshal Islands. Look similar, but the Marshal ones are highly sought after for their much better success rates. I am pretty sure a few other wholesalers label the origins too….it was very much part of the MAC standards, but we had been doing it long before that just for our own tracking.