FishyMel
New member
http://www.coralreef.gov/international/trade.pdf
Although this article is long, as a a conscientious aquarium hobbyist I think it would be a good idea to read it or at least skim it. It highlights some of the real world dangers of commercial exploitation of coral and tropical fish and really puts the environmental impact of the hobby in perspective. It also helps to invalidate some of the lies frequently cirrculated around this forum that so many of us are tired of hearing.
For example, this quote from the article highlights one of the larger issues about price versus rarity in the hobby, invalidating the theory that high price equates no more rare than cheap and that all prices are essentially artificial.
"Species with the highest retail value are those that are the rarest and hardest to find in the wild,
which creates economic incentives adverse to the survival of those species; determining the
impact of removal of these species would be most difficult given their rare or uncommon status.
New technologies now allow the collection of species that live several hundred feet deep, in
depths relatively free from other human impacts. Almost no information exists on the biology
and ecology of many of these deep-water species."
This is the true biological perspective opposed to the layman aquarist perspective, keep that in mind.
Although this article is long, as a a conscientious aquarium hobbyist I think it would be a good idea to read it or at least skim it. It highlights some of the real world dangers of commercial exploitation of coral and tropical fish and really puts the environmental impact of the hobby in perspective. It also helps to invalidate some of the lies frequently cirrculated around this forum that so many of us are tired of hearing.
For example, this quote from the article highlights one of the larger issues about price versus rarity in the hobby, invalidating the theory that high price equates no more rare than cheap and that all prices are essentially artificial.
"Species with the highest retail value are those that are the rarest and hardest to find in the wild,
which creates economic incentives adverse to the survival of those species; determining the
impact of removal of these species would be most difficult given their rare or uncommon status.
New technologies now allow the collection of species that live several hundred feet deep, in
depths relatively free from other human impacts. Almost no information exists on the biology
and ecology of many of these deep-water species."
This is the true biological perspective opposed to the layman aquarist perspective, keep that in mind.
