The biggest threat to our hobby

[asylumdown]

Originally Posted by Dearth

Gave them my two bits

Question

Does this potential law cover North America or just the US? I understand the potential impact it will have on reefers in Canada but if the law only covers the US then any potential coral covered that would be deemed Illegal would apply only to Canadians if we tried to buy/sell or trade to anybody from the US or Protected US waters. If it covers North America then it's a different story

Just an observation

The ESA is a US piece of legislation. However, I'm not sure how ESA and CITES interact with each other. If the inclusion of these species on the US ESA somehow gets them uplisted on CITES, then it would affect all countries who have signed that treaty (Canada being one).

In either case, it would likely put many of the coral wholesalers that Canadian retailers get their stock from out of business.

TBH, CITES would be a far more responsible and reflexive tool through which to regulate the international trade in these animals, as it leaves room for countries with well managed populations to split list them between the 3 Appendixes. CITES could theoretically be used to ban the export and collection of wild threatened species, but permit the trade and export of maricultured or farmed versions. However, it's pretty clear that the Centre for Biological Diversity's goals are largely political, and they're using these species as a pawn in their attempt to force US action on climate change, so I'm not surprised they're going the route they're going.

[saltcreep]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

The ESA is a US piece of legislation. However, I'm not sure how ESA and CITES interact with each other. If the inclusion of these species on the US ESA somehow gets them uplisted on CITES, then it would affect all countries who have signed that treaty (Canada being one).

All these species are currently CITES listed. What the US does with respect to their own regulations would have little impact on CITES. CITES approach seems to be one that their decisions are based on data. All signatory countries to CITES would still have to follow the CITES regulations and not those of the ESA.

In either case, it would likely put many of the coral wholesalers that Canadian retailers get their stock from out of business.

Nope.

Clownfish are the most popular aquarium fish globally. They're still going to be collected for every other market (and the Japanese market really can't be underestimated). It will take the pressure off wild populations, but it won't eliminate it, and since next to nothing is known about how the aquarium trade is really affecting global clownfish populations, there's no way of knowing whether or not shutting down the US clownfish market will even help. What it will do for sure though, is force all the US based commercial scale clown-breeding facilities and hobbyists - which have been world leaders on the boundaries on captive fish breeding and have zero impact on wild populations - to shut down and destroy their entire breeding stock. I can't think of a more perfect example of throwing the baby out with the bath water.

This proposal is for A. percula only and seven species of damsels/chromis including green chromis (C. viridis). It will not affect any other clownfish species so by that, A. ocellaris will still be legal to import (for now).