Reniva Ma
Community Member
Here’s a mini informal article I wrote about sustainability and ethics of this hobby. Love to see options and enjoy
(Context I’m a reefer and a coral/fish retailer or as u might know a lfs)
I’m a strong believer in the benefits of the hobby, the happiness, money and opportunities it can bring to people as well as giving back to the environment but I do not believe there is a clear cut answer. The marine hobby gets a horrible reputation because the very sentiment of taking a fish from the wild and endangered ecosystem such as the reefs and putting it in a box sounds horrible. From what I’ve seen a lot of evidence from the against side is outdated and not backed. One is that many fish are collected by cyanide, this is absolutely not true anymore as it has been outlawed and the high mortality rates along the supply chain have drastically lowered the demand in favor of healthier specimens. Also that 99% of marine fish die within a year is Not quantified at all and getting a accurate statistic like that is near impossible. I have put points on both sides to explore and I would love to hear your opinions.
Pros:
It’s a good source of money for retailers, wholesalers fish collectors and even hobbyists
Brings immense happiness for the enjoyers of the hobby
Makes way for education learning and love for natural reefs. So this point I picked up because there is large debate between the difference of taking a fish for a aquarium and and one to eat is not much different. Out of some sources it is estimated that about 40-60 million saltwater fish are exported from the oceans each year compared to about 90-95 million tonnes of fish from the fishing industry, going on the high side, assuming that one fish is about 10 lbs each that’s about 19 billion individual fish (probably double) caught by the commercial fishing industry… and OUR practices are considered unsustainable… now a regular consumer who eats a fish sandwich 100% cares less about the fish than someone who is buying one for their tank to love and cherish. In fact one of the guys in chasing coral the Netflix documentary bringing awareness and funding for the loss of our natural reefs was Inspired by his experience owning a home marine aquarium. A lot of the biggest reefers are the largest marine conservation advocates found in high positions in public aquariums etc. I’ve personally found reefers to be the people who care the most about the natural reefs and in my personal experience reefers are some of the people who know most about coral and fish in the world.
Coral banks, because of the marine hobby it has created around 1 million miniature coral banks that propagate and keep coral safe so we can enjoy living specimens even after the impending disappearance of the reefs.
Captive breeding programs (including fish and coral and inverts), development of technology, and research, a lot of these have been done a perfected for the marine aquarium trade and is also used in public aquarium and for reef conservation. The topic of captive breeding coral has been a large topic of many reefers due to the impending shutdown of export for marine Aquaria world wide. It is true that the majority of captive aquarium fish are wild caught but I believe that the shutdown of wild fish imports will drastically lower the amount of people going into the hobby which will lower the awareness for natural reefs.
Cons:
Death, as a hobbyist and retailer, it is undeniable the amount of live stock is loss to shipping, stress, disease, and poor husbandry. The number is much higher than I would like but that being said; how does that compare to the food fishing industry? In both cases the animal ends up dead.
Ethics of keeping aquarium fish in not their natural habitat. Many people argue that fish kept in glass boxes forced to swim in circles is cruel. But I believe that this is a gross personification of a animal which is very rarely acceptable. Animals are not humans they do not feel the same way we do and to my knowledge they do not care as long as their fed and happy, in a correct tank size and husbandry. In my experience being in the reptile hobby for 7 years, it’s a lot less of a nightmare because most marine fish are quite intolerant of inadequate conditions making so that keeping them properly is needed for success compared to reptiles where it is all too often you’ll see a animal being abused but won’t die due to hardiness. I also notice that freshwater fish die wayyy more often for no reason than marine fish when kept well but this is mostly anecdotal so take that as you will. This being said it is unacceptable to abuse fish or any animal. This brings up another topic on how some people in the hobby see fish as disposable which is true but I do not see it as much different than leaving a fish fillet out too long and just buying a new one
Environmental impact. This is a major concern amoung many people for good reason but studies in Hawaii have proven that export of marine species for the fish trade has no environment impact on wild populations and it’s actually the food fishes that are seeing decline. I do not know if this is the case however in other countries who export. Of course collecting fish from the wild should be avoided anyways but due to how niche and small the hobby is I doubt it has any significant impact.
So, what do you think? I personally believe this hobby brings much more positive than negative much of the controversy comes from people who are not involved in the hobby and there fore do not see the beauty in it. They’ll happily tell you to stop your tank but repulse if you tell them to stop eating fish. I’m happy to hear your opinions whatever side your on.
Sources
https://ourworldindata.org/fish-and-overfishing#:~:text=What's%20striking%20is%20that%20global,over%20100%20million%20per%20year.
https://www.csmonitor.com/Environme...l-tropical-fish-trade-loom-perilous-practices
https://www.humanedecisions.com/pet...e-aquarium-trade-why-its-cruel-and-unethical/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7692700/
(Context I’m a reefer and a coral/fish retailer or as u might know a lfs)
I’m a strong believer in the benefits of the hobby, the happiness, money and opportunities it can bring to people as well as giving back to the environment but I do not believe there is a clear cut answer. The marine hobby gets a horrible reputation because the very sentiment of taking a fish from the wild and endangered ecosystem such as the reefs and putting it in a box sounds horrible. From what I’ve seen a lot of evidence from the against side is outdated and not backed. One is that many fish are collected by cyanide, this is absolutely not true anymore as it has been outlawed and the high mortality rates along the supply chain have drastically lowered the demand in favor of healthier specimens. Also that 99% of marine fish die within a year is Not quantified at all and getting a accurate statistic like that is near impossible. I have put points on both sides to explore and I would love to hear your opinions.
Pros:
It’s a good source of money for retailers, wholesalers fish collectors and even hobbyists
Brings immense happiness for the enjoyers of the hobby
Makes way for education learning and love for natural reefs. So this point I picked up because there is large debate between the difference of taking a fish for a aquarium and and one to eat is not much different. Out of some sources it is estimated that about 40-60 million saltwater fish are exported from the oceans each year compared to about 90-95 million tonnes of fish from the fishing industry, going on the high side, assuming that one fish is about 10 lbs each that’s about 19 billion individual fish (probably double) caught by the commercial fishing industry… and OUR practices are considered unsustainable… now a regular consumer who eats a fish sandwich 100% cares less about the fish than someone who is buying one for their tank to love and cherish. In fact one of the guys in chasing coral the Netflix documentary bringing awareness and funding for the loss of our natural reefs was Inspired by his experience owning a home marine aquarium. A lot of the biggest reefers are the largest marine conservation advocates found in high positions in public aquariums etc. I’ve personally found reefers to be the people who care the most about the natural reefs and in my personal experience reefers are some of the people who know most about coral and fish in the world.
Coral banks, because of the marine hobby it has created around 1 million miniature coral banks that propagate and keep coral safe so we can enjoy living specimens even after the impending disappearance of the reefs.
Captive breeding programs (including fish and coral and inverts), development of technology, and research, a lot of these have been done a perfected for the marine aquarium trade and is also used in public aquarium and for reef conservation. The topic of captive breeding coral has been a large topic of many reefers due to the impending shutdown of export for marine Aquaria world wide. It is true that the majority of captive aquarium fish are wild caught but I believe that the shutdown of wild fish imports will drastically lower the amount of people going into the hobby which will lower the awareness for natural reefs.
Cons:
Death, as a hobbyist and retailer, it is undeniable the amount of live stock is loss to shipping, stress, disease, and poor husbandry. The number is much higher than I would like but that being said; how does that compare to the food fishing industry? In both cases the animal ends up dead.
Ethics of keeping aquarium fish in not their natural habitat. Many people argue that fish kept in glass boxes forced to swim in circles is cruel. But I believe that this is a gross personification of a animal which is very rarely acceptable. Animals are not humans they do not feel the same way we do and to my knowledge they do not care as long as their fed and happy, in a correct tank size and husbandry. In my experience being in the reptile hobby for 7 years, it’s a lot less of a nightmare because most marine fish are quite intolerant of inadequate conditions making so that keeping them properly is needed for success compared to reptiles where it is all too often you’ll see a animal being abused but won’t die due to hardiness. I also notice that freshwater fish die wayyy more often for no reason than marine fish when kept well but this is mostly anecdotal so take that as you will. This being said it is unacceptable to abuse fish or any animal. This brings up another topic on how some people in the hobby see fish as disposable which is true but I do not see it as much different than leaving a fish fillet out too long and just buying a new one
Environmental impact. This is a major concern amoung many people for good reason but studies in Hawaii have proven that export of marine species for the fish trade has no environment impact on wild populations and it’s actually the food fishes that are seeing decline. I do not know if this is the case however in other countries who export. Of course collecting fish from the wild should be avoided anyways but due to how niche and small the hobby is I doubt it has any significant impact.
So, what do you think? I personally believe this hobby brings much more positive than negative much of the controversy comes from people who are not involved in the hobby and there fore do not see the beauty in it. They’ll happily tell you to stop your tank but repulse if you tell them to stop eating fish. I’m happy to hear your opinions whatever side your on.
Sources
https://ourworldindata.org/fish-and-overfishing#:~:text=What's%20striking%20is%20that%20global,over%20100%20million%20per%20year.
https://www.csmonitor.com/Environme...l-tropical-fish-trade-loom-perilous-practices
https://www.humanedecisions.com/pet...e-aquarium-trade-why-its-cruel-and-unethical/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7692700/
