***FISH BAN!***

Clownreef

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Ive been getting bombarded with emails from fish retailers about some imminent new law which bans every animal except dogs and cats..

"Under the Lacey Act, it is unlawful to import, export, sell, acquire, or purchase fish, wildlife or plants that are taken, possessed, transported, or sold: 1) in violation of U.S. or Indian law, or 2) in interstate or foreign commerce involving any fish, wildlife, or plants taken possessed or sold in violation of State or foreign law.

The law covers all fish and wildlife and their parts or products, plants protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and those protected by State law. Commercial guiding and outfitting are considered to be a sale under the provisions of the Act.".

Does anyone have any real insight?
 

BroccoliFarmer

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The Sky Is Falling Reaction GIF
 

ReeferSamster

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The law covers all fish and wildlife and their parts or products, plants protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and those protected by State law. Commercial guiding and outfitting are considered to be a sale under the provisions of the Act.".

Does anyone have any real insight?
The law you quoted only refers to animals or plants that are CITES protected. It does not cover animals or plants that are outside of CITES. CITES only governs animals or plants that are in the endangered species list. Here is an example thats been going on for decades:

Fish such as the Asian Arowana are CITES protected and illegal in the United States without a microchip. Ironic, because arowana farms make thousands of fry and raise them to sell in Asia. Artificial breeding of arowana dragonfish is fully capable of repopulating the species, but CITES has been dragging its feet for us, United States arowana lovers.

My 2nd most favorite aquatic hobby after my reef tank is getting a nice Crossback Red Arowana one day:

ryuarowana_94353903_112635530426336_3204308222281028972_n.jpg
 
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areefer01

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$400 yellow tangs these days. Anything to cause chaos lol

You are looking at the wrong place. You can buy a yellow tang today for $150 bucks at BIOTA. They are starting to sell medium sized also.

I encourage all hobbyist to look at captive raised, and bred, first before going shopping. Support BIOTA and ORA and the small breeders because if we don't these sort of things will continue to come about and one will be the final nail.

No reason to ever pull some fish out of the ocean when they are available via captive programs.
 

italquam

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You are looking at the wrong place. You can buy a yellow tang today for $150 bucks at BIOTA. They are starting to sell medium sized also.

I encourage all hobbyist to look at captive raised, and bred, first before going shopping. Support BIOTA and ORA and the small breeders because if we don't these sort of things will continue to come about and one will be the final nail.

No reason to ever pull some fish out of the ocean when they are available via captive programs.
Yes this is true but some people don't have large budgets for captive bread , so if the government wants to ban wild caught that is fine they should subsidize the Ora and Biota of the world , so they can lower prices and grow their business , which will help hobbyists afford captive bread and steer away from wild caught. Just like they subsidize farms and such, then help the industry as well. Also not every fish can be captive bread , so how do we address that issue
 

smiley28

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You are looking at the wrong place. You can buy a yellow tang today for $150 bucks at BIOTA. They are starting to sell medium sized also.

I encourage all hobbyist to look at captive raised, and bred, first before going shopping. Support BIOTA and ORA and the small breeders because if we don't these sort of things will continue to come about and one will be the final nail.

No reason to ever pull some fish out of the ocean when they are available via captive programs.
Uh I was in complete agreeance until that last comment.
 

scrapz

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Uh I was in complete agreeance until that last comment.
Why? The last part makes the most sense. Why pull from the ocean and damage the reefs in the long term because you are too cheap to spend on a hobby you supposedly love. If fish weren't so dang cheap this whole time, alot more care practices such as QT would be put into place across the hobbyist. When a fish cost less than a meal, many disregard the purchase and repeat the same terrible practices.
 

damsels are not mean

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Why? The last part makes the most sense. Why pull from the ocean and damage the reefs in the long term because you are too cheap to spend on a hobby you supposedly love. If fish weren't so dang cheap this whole time, alot more care practices such as QT would be put into place across the hobbyist. When a fish cost less than a meal, many disregard the purchase and repeat the same terrible practices.
Well-managed harvesting for the ornamental trade actually has a positive impact on wild reefs as it gives people whose only resource is the ocean a much more lucrative business on a per-animal basis than fishing for food would be. It actually significantly reduces strain on the reef because just a few ornamental fish are worth dozens if not hundreds of the same kinds of fish caught for food. The ornamental fish trade genuinely has almost no negative impact on reefs (unless cyanide or something is used), but food fishing these same areas (which has a lot of overlap in terms of species) absolutely does have an effect.

I love and will support captive breeding efforts for a lot of reasons including biosecurity and getting better captive specimens generally, but it's just plain wrong to say that wild capture is bad (if it's not done poorly). Some species are hard or impractical to breed in captivity and it would be sad to lose wild caught fishes over a bunch of emotional and counterproductive arguments about reefers pillaging the reefs. The sad part is the places with some of the best managed fisheries like Hawaii and Australia are also the jumpiest when it comes to restrictions and bans... Which leaves the collection in the hands of places that use cyanide and don't rotate collection zones or collect much data on what they're doing.
 

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