100% Certified Cyanide Free Reef Fish for Sale.

[slakker]

I'd pay double if it was certified AND it came with a 15 day (or whatever) guarantee. The certification by itself will not be enough for me to pay double... if the fish dies, I can't perform a necropsy to confirm so I could be scammed. And not neccesarrily by the retailer, but the supplier or others in the supply chain.

[awa1979]

I would rather see less species available and have those species humanly caught and with as little environmental damage as possible, then have a huge selection that were caught in questionable ways.

If we stop buying fish that don't belong in captivity, eventually the demand will fall and collection will ease.

If the hobby doesn't police itself, the politicians will eventually and well we know what happens when politicians become involved with things.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Originally Posted by awa1979

I would rather see less species available and have those species humanly caught and with as little environmental damage as possible, then have a huge selection that were caught in questionable ways.

If we stop buying fish that don't belong in captivity, eventually the demand will fall and collection will ease.

If the hobby doesn't police itself, the politicians will eventually and well we know what happens when politicians become involved with things.

I think that is kind of the way its going...

I also think it will just simply end up being a matter of many fish going onto the endangered species list before the collection of them stops. May not be in my lifetime but it clearly will happen. Between overfishing, pollution, climate change and collecting, the ocean is declining fast.

The way things are now for this hobby, its not sustainable.

[BlueAbyss]

Originally Posted by GreenSpottedPuffer

I think that is kind of the way its going...

I also think it will just simply end up being a matter of many fish going onto the endangered species list before the collection of them stops. May not be in my lifetime but it clearly will happen. Between overfishing, pollution, climate change and collecting, the ocean is declining fast.

The way things are now for this hobby, its not sustainable.

Just a note about sustainability...

You honestly think it is aquarists that are destroying the ocean? Ever watched a shrimp boat sweep the sea clean, only to pick a couple shrimps out of the mess of sealife that ends up on the deck of the boat, and shovel all the dead and dying sealife back into the ocean? Few (if any) of the fish that sit up in the sun while they pick through the mess for the shrimp survive...

Look at how destructive fishing for orange roughy is... I mean really, orange roughy is expensive because there are so few left. Like the cod fishery on Canada's east coast, it was just not sustainable, but that doesn't stop people from eating shrimp, cod, orange roughy...

Me buying a pair of wild-caught fish probably did less damage than me eating 5 shrimp at a restaurant, in all reality. But that's just my $.02, others will undoubtedly see this differently. I just watched a TV show about shrimping the other day, and was so unimpressed with the like 5 shrimp that came out of a full net of ocean animals that I'll likely only eat shrimp on special occasions, and will likely never buy them again.

Unless I'm serving them with beluga caviar and a big bucket of sea turtle eggs.

[Snaz]

I started this poll and expected to see 90%+ in favour of buying the "certified cyanide free" option. I was surprised by the 60/40 split and some of the responses.

[justinl]

Originally Posted by BlueAbyss

I just watched a TV show about shrimping the other day, and was so unimpressed with the like 5 shrimp that came out of a full net of ocean animals that I'll likely only eat shrimp on special occasions, and will likely never buy them again.

It just depends which shrimp you eat. Never eat tiger prawns, for example, for the same reasons you stated. But take a gander over to Granville island market and you'll find FRESH trapped prawns. prawn traps are just like crab traps and are 100% sustainable in my mind. plus spot prawns taste 10X better than stinkin asian tiger prawns. Canadian fisheries has a lot of screw ups to fix and answer for, but not all of it is doom and gloom (just most of it :P)

my current favorite picture out of "nature". this sort of sums up shrimp trawling for me. it's a satellite image of an asian shrimp trawling fleet and the sediment they kick up (which then settles and chokes out any and all sessile life).


snaz, im not too surprised. read the rest of the comments and you'll see it's a bit more complicated than the poll options allowed. plus people like their money. we are in a recession after all. for the record, i would because i know how much damage cyanide does on a reef.

edit: blueabyss, i just realised you're not from vancouver... don't know why i thought you were. well, i guess you're hooped then

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Originally Posted by BlueAbyss

Just a note about sustainability...

You honestly think it is aquarists that are destroying the ocean? Ever watched a shrimp boat sweep the sea clean, only to pick a couple shrimps out of the mess of sealife that ends up on the deck of the boat, and shovel all the dead and dying sealife back into the ocean? Few (if any) of the fish that sit up in the sun while they pick through the mess for the shrimp survive...

Look at how destructive fishing for orange roughy is... I mean really, orange roughy is expensive because there are so few left. Like the cod fishery on Canada's east coast, it was just not sustainable, but that doesn't stop people from eating shrimp, cod, orange roughy...

Me buying a pair of wild-caught fish probably did less damage than me eating 5 shrimp at a restaurant, in all reality. But that's just my $.02, others will undoubtedly see this differently. I just watched a TV show about shrimping the other day, and was so unimpressed with the like 5 shrimp that came out of a full net of ocean animals that I'll likely only eat shrimp on special occasions, and will likely never buy them again.

Unless I'm serving them with beluga caviar and a big bucket of sea turtle eggs.

No your totally right...I never thought of it like that before. I agree though and feel so much better now! Man I used to think I was kind of selfish but you have really changed my mind. I mean the destruction caused by the hobby that I support really doesn't matter as long as there is something even more destructive out there.

Wow this kind of thinking makes it so much easier to justify things! I think I am going to apply this to my everyday life...Long as someone out there is worse than me, I don't have to worry about my actions













Honestly, though, you should do some research and open your eyes. Some collectors are destroying the reef at an alarming rate. Cyanide kills something like a square meter of reef for every one fish caught.

Any destruction of the ocean is important to stop right now, big or small. You can't just justify it or shrug it off because someone out there is doing it worse than you.

[BlueAbyss]

Not what I meant at all, not at all...

I didn't mean that this hobby isn't destructive, what I meant was that we DO have to look at the bigger picture. Sure, reefs are being destroyed at an alarming rate, but probably more because of the effects of climate change, turbidity, and pollution than from the collection of fishes and other sealife for the aquarium trade. I mean, not everyone will pay as much as marine aquarists do for a single fish. What I meant was that there is destruction of all kinds on a much grander scale...

That isn't the point though. I agree with you, how can I not? Dousing reefs with cyanide to catch a fish is ridiculous, and it is in everyone's best interest to minimize that sort of destruction. HOWEVER, I also believe that we need to make other choices to minimize our impact across all ecosystems, which was sort of my point.

I didn't want to start a fight at all, if that's what it sounded like