Frag Collecting Only

[hpi_jeep]

Just look a all the stores out of business in the last 15 years. When I was a kid, before internet shopping, I'd get my parents to take me to 5-6 shops in our town. Now there are 2. This is a hobby on the decline.

Buying wild harvested corals, which are regulated, helps sustain indigenous populations. When they make there living, caring, maintaining and harvesting reefs, people are more likely to protect them. Otherwise they subsistence fish and cut down rain forests and fill in marsh lands for farming. Not to mention fertilizer and animal waste runoff. The reefs need these filters found on land for survival.

Two good examples. We have killed the everglades, the reefs in the keys are not even close to what they used to be. Removing marshland and farming in Australia has increased nutrient levels in the great barrier reef which directly corresponds to crown of thorns starfish outbreaks.

We need to support sustainable harvest and macroculture in the pacific, this may be the only way to get the indigenous people to care for the natural reef habitat, instead of destroying it like we have.

this is across the board with any hobby. it's mainly due to the internet. far less over head and far more customers available from e-shopping

 

[Walking_Target]

Hilarious that people are arguing about a truely low-volume fishery.

Carnival/Disney cruiselines does far more damage to reefs via the uneducated masses tromping on reef habitats than collecters do.

If we're talking about potential harm to reef habitats, the saltwater aquarium trade is far down the list. Under things like oil exploration, international ocean shipping, industrial polution, tourism and etc.

What does more more damage to a reef? 10 years of collection for the saltwater aquarium trade or a 40' long dryvan container pushed in by the tide?

 

[organism]

The whole idea that we should reduce our reliance on wild collection of corals makes two major assumptions- that 1) collection of corals has a significant impact on the reefs and 2) if there was less demand from the hobby, collectors would collect less. Neither is a realistic assumption.

The presence of a high-value, low-volume fishery like the live coral trade encourages locals to protect the reef from more destructive interests like dynamite fishermen and limestone mining. As a result, a responsible live coral fishery is a part of virtually every management proposal for reef fisheries.

Good to see some realistic points on here! It's hard to get the fact across that coral collection has such a small effect on the reef that it's negligible. There's a ton of studies proving what does damage to reefs, and coral collection usually runs in the ".001%" range.

To everyone that's posted thinking this isn't the case, trust me, you're insulated in a hobbyist mindset and don't understand how things behind the scenes actually work. Your intentions are good, but you're holding one piece of a puzzle and arguing about what the big picture looks like to people that have already put it together.

 

[Angel*Fish]

Wow. Who was saying that exactly? I missed it. It's amazing to me how condescending some of the posters on this thread are being.