Environmental Impact of our Hobby.

[saltcreep]

Originally Posted by Reefer Rob

People who "took" something from the Mariculture industry provided jobs to an impoverished area and added value to the reefs. Try a few Google searches to see whats going on.

Same goes for rock, sand or whatever... as long as it is done in an environmentally sustainable way. There's no way for me to know if this is the case, since I buy most things through several middle men, but again adding value to the reefs will encourage local governments to make good conservation decisions.

This industry is a looooong way from being sustainable. Greed rules the day. If you can pull it off the reef to make a dollar today, who cares about tomorrow. That's the thought process of many of the exporting nations.

Yes, when compared to other factors, the impact of the hobby is relatively small. Unfortunately, it's the other factors that will have the ultimate say in the future of it. Bottom line is that if you remove animals from an ecosystem will have an impact. Period.