Divers and Fish
James M. Cervino
cnidaria at pop.earthlink.net
Sat Nov 3 08:18:43 EST 2001
Hello,
The problem with Craig's suggestion is that there is a very small
number of peoples who understand the basic RESPONSIBILITIES of
owning a home living-room aquarium. Many peoples get into this
hobby(without understanding basic chemistry) and consistently have to
purchase new valuable endangered corals due to mistakes and not
maintaining there aquariums. Hence the revolving door of wild caught
corals continues the influx of corals into the USA. There are still
to this day, stores selling dead corals for coffee tables. Has the
MAC addressed this problem, and what are they trying to do to stop
the imports of dead corals ? This trade can never be sustainable
unless we build farms that harvest these valuable corals. Then they
must train the locals to farm and fish with nets, then sell their
product to those in the USA who need to have these valuable organisms
in there living rooms, and for those who choose this line of work to
support themselves. I am still alarmed as to what I see arriving at
all the local aquarium shops in the USA. Many of them are telling me
that they have long wait times for certain corals and fish due to the
fisherman claiming the abundance has dwindled. From the 20 or so
store owners I spoke with, they claim that the abundance is not like
it was in the 80s, and this is not due to restrictions.
While surfing the net I came upon a Web Site that sells corals and
live-rock in Tonga. This group collect the corals and rock from
selected areas, after collection they culture the specimens in huge
labs/greenhouses (it seems to be temperature controlled). Has anyone
seen this site and operation? It seems impressive and from what the
web-site says; they train the locals to work on board with them. Is
this a sustainable operation, I am wondering? If anyone has feedback
please let me know?
Thank You, James Cervino
--
************************************
James M. Cervino
PhD. Program
Marine Science Program
University of South Carolina
(803) 996-6470
e-mail:cnidaria at earthlink.net
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