Thoughts on "Certified Zero Impact" or Somesuch (For class project)

[uscreef]

Hey everyone,

I'm in a class this semester where we've been directed to write a paper on something we're passionate about - so I'm writing on reefkeeping. The overall gist of my paper is to analyze the supply chain of the coral industry, its impact on conservation and wild coral, a way to lower its environmental impact, and the creation of a marketplace to bring together a pretty fragmented hobbyist industry. It's a fairly broad scope I realize, but I was hoping to get hobbyist's views on some of the issues.

What do you think of a "Certified Zero Impact" label that businesses and hobbyists could put on their coral certifying that it was wholly farmed in captivity and not taken from the wild. The certification could be bestowed by a central certifying body by the submission of documentation that the hobbyist grows the coral themselves or, if a vendor, that it is bought from hobbyists or captive grown, not harvested from the ocean.

What do you think?

Ryan

 

[jenglish]

I think that there is nothing on this Earth with true Zero Impact. A aquacultured specimen represents the carbon footprint of it's production and transportation. This may be much lower impact for many species but may not be for others. You would also have to consider that in some areas if corals cannot be sold as pets they will be sold as curio decorations or even crushed for construction aggregates. Does the declining demand for a local species decrease local incentive to protect a reef and lead to it's demise?

I don't know the answer to these questions as it may be different for different specimens.

 

[AquaKnight]

http://reefcheck.org

To be honest, IMHO the way to go would be responsible collection practices, conservation, management, education, etc. The "Zero Impact" method has inherit limits, due to only certain species being able to be farmed in captivity. Most fish and inverts are currently not able to be aquacultured, and have to be taken from the wild. This is very similar to paper/wood. There is no way around having to cut down trees. However with probably harvesting/forest management, we can minimize the impact.

Your paper could be setting up something like ReefCheck, the education of local collectors, a central body independent vendors would join, and "be certified" by, etc.

 

[GreshamH]

Last I heard Reefcheck didn't play a roll in education of local collectors but rather has tourists pay to "check the reef" AKA take fish counts, etc. They were hooked in with MAC for a while to help do the transects and MAC was doing the certification and "education of the local collectors".