duncaholic
New member
IMO there are only 2 ways in which this hobby has a negative impact on the environment.
1. Harvesting of any renewable resource must be done in a sustainable way in order to keep the resource renewable. My problem is that no matter how much I poke and prod, most of the LFS I go to can't tell me much of anything about how the animals I'm purchasing were obtained. I seriously doubt that ornamental collecting could have huge negative consequences across the board, but I don't know for sure.
What I do know something about is the local commercial fisheries. The bio-mass I see every week at my local fishmonger dwarfs the bio mass of the largest LFS in my city. And that's just the beginning, there are 50X more stores that sell wild caught seafood than ornamental fish and corals here. Also I know from first hand experience that most of what is caught here locally is exported, so the bio-mass in all the local stores is just a fraction of what's taken from the ocean here every day.
I know that this isn't a fair comparison because of the limited habitat of reef inhabitants, but the lessons learned from over fishing here still apply. For all their faults, the Florida division of fish and wildlife has set a high standard for protecting threatened species and maintaining the renew-ability of our local fisheries. size and bag limits work. Sensible regulation of any fishery is the only way to ensure long term viability.
Thus, as a hobbyist, I think the single most important thing that we could do...if we were united in the effort... is demand that all suppliers of wild caught specimens be held accountable for the manner in which they conduct their collection activities. the only way we could accomplish this is by using our collective purchasing power to reward responsible collectors and boycott collectors using destructive and/or un-sustainable practices.
2. Energy consumption of our systems. We as a community probably do more damage to our own environment by the massive amount of energy we consume to keep our reefs alive than any other single activity. A typical 125g MH mixed reef will consume somewhere between 10 kWh on the low end and up to 25kwh on the high end per day. Since almost all of use use municipal power supplies, think about all the pollution our reefs indirectly create. Apart from people new to the hobby(as we all made lots of deadly mistakes early on), how many fish/corals does an average reefer 3 years into the hobby purchase each year? Not too many I don't think. But that same reefer still consumes (with the sort of tank listed above) some 3640 kWh to 9100 kwh per year. Food for thought.
As for chemicals and supplements, They have helped extend the life expectancy for humans, and used properly do so for our pets as well.
Just my 2 cents.....
-Mitch
1. Harvesting of any renewable resource must be done in a sustainable way in order to keep the resource renewable. My problem is that no matter how much I poke and prod, most of the LFS I go to can't tell me much of anything about how the animals I'm purchasing were obtained. I seriously doubt that ornamental collecting could have huge negative consequences across the board, but I don't know for sure.
What I do know something about is the local commercial fisheries. The bio-mass I see every week at my local fishmonger dwarfs the bio mass of the largest LFS in my city. And that's just the beginning, there are 50X more stores that sell wild caught seafood than ornamental fish and corals here. Also I know from first hand experience that most of what is caught here locally is exported, so the bio-mass in all the local stores is just a fraction of what's taken from the ocean here every day.
I know that this isn't a fair comparison because of the limited habitat of reef inhabitants, but the lessons learned from over fishing here still apply. For all their faults, the Florida division of fish and wildlife has set a high standard for protecting threatened species and maintaining the renew-ability of our local fisheries. size and bag limits work. Sensible regulation of any fishery is the only way to ensure long term viability.
Thus, as a hobbyist, I think the single most important thing that we could do...if we were united in the effort... is demand that all suppliers of wild caught specimens be held accountable for the manner in which they conduct their collection activities. the only way we could accomplish this is by using our collective purchasing power to reward responsible collectors and boycott collectors using destructive and/or un-sustainable practices.
2. Energy consumption of our systems. We as a community probably do more damage to our own environment by the massive amount of energy we consume to keep our reefs alive than any other single activity. A typical 125g MH mixed reef will consume somewhere between 10 kWh on the low end and up to 25kwh on the high end per day. Since almost all of use use municipal power supplies, think about all the pollution our reefs indirectly create. Apart from people new to the hobby(as we all made lots of deadly mistakes early on), how many fish/corals does an average reefer 3 years into the hobby purchase each year? Not too many I don't think. But that same reefer still consumes (with the sort of tank listed above) some 3640 kWh to 9100 kwh per year. Food for thought.
As for chemicals and supplements, They have helped extend the life expectancy for humans, and used properly do so for our pets as well.
Just my 2 cents.....
-Mitch
