Ocean Voice International, Ottawa

Coral Health and Monitoring Program coral at coral.AOML.ERL.GOV
Thu Oct 19 22:02:37 EDT 1995


A forwarded message from Don McAllister: 

---------- Forwarded message ---------- 
Date: Wed, 1 Nov 1995 07:49:43 -0500 
From: Don McAllister <ah194 at freenet.carleton.ca> 
To: coral at coral 
Cc: bd268 at freenet, bo093 at freenet, stefano at epaus.island.net, ah201 at freenet, 
    Haribon at phil.gn.apc.org 
Subject: Re: CYANIDE FISHING IN ASIAN CORAL REEFS 

Ocean Voice International, Ottawa. has been working since 1989 
with the Haribon Foundation for Conservation of Natural Resources, 
Manila, on helping aquarium fishers and others convert from use 
of cyanide to nets.  With a modest budget in the Philippines we 
now have 800 of the 2500 cyanide users trained and 500 of the 
800 have formed a national aquarium fish gatherers association 
to export cyanide-free net-caught fish.  We are seeking donations, 
memberships and grants to help provide a holding and export 
building and human resource development. 

We have also heard from reliable sources about the extensive use 
of cyanide for collection of live food fishes in Indonesia and 
the Philippines, so we give credence to Johannes's report. 

The high mortality of fishes exposed to cyanide makes it a non- 
sustainable practice, though easy to use, since it is hard to 
ajust the dose to merely stun the fishes, and many fishes die on 
the reef and on route to their destination.  Worse is that repeated 
exposure to cyanide causes coral to bleach and die.  The time for 
the coral habitat to replace itself is longer than the regeneration 
time for the fishes, assuming that that the use of cyanide is 
eliminated or reduced. 

For more information on Ocean Voice see our home page: 

	http://www.conveyor.com/oceanvoice.html 

Where can interested parties get a copy of Johannes report? 

Don McAllister 

-- 
Don E. McAllister, Canadian ##  & Ocean Voice International, Box 37026 
Museum of Nature, P.O.B. 3443 ##  3332 McCarthy Road, Ottawa, ON K1V 0W0 
Stn D,Ottawa,ON K1P 6P4  Tel. (613)264-8986, Fax: (613)264-9204 
E-mail addresses: ah194 at freenet.carleton.ca / mcall at jester.com 




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