Morality and Fish

[Howie]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

My thoughts are that the LFS is going to sell them anyway. Fishermen are going to catch them, suppliers are going to buy them, LFS will order them and customers will take them home. This will never stop. There are enough people that don't know it's difficult, only as the grumpy Gill in the dentist office. They will always sell whether I buy it or leave it. (In my case, I ordered it specifically for me, so it might have stayed in the ocean if I hadn't). Or not.

But then we get to the question, if I leave it in the ocean, would it have survived until today without getting eaten by a Fijian seal or dolphin? Don't know. Should we leave them all in the ocean? Maybe. But people catch these guys all day long for food in their country of origin. I've seen tang, angel and trigger on ice in markets.

Can I keep this guy alive? I think so. If I do, I'm putting it in a glass box in my livingroom. Is that successful? I doubt the MI would think so.

I dunno, no right answer I guess.

Lol and if he doesn't survive you got food for your table :P

[Bblinks]

It's the challenge that makes me want to try those "impossible" to keep fishes. Gotta overcome the impossibility and make it possible. Damn ocd. Yes I'll take another Achilles for 250 dollars please...throw in the copperband and the moorish idol too.

[jorjef]

It really isn't complicated as people say. It's black or white, you care or don't care about how fish feel about living in a box. I have several tanks, so I guess I truely don't care about what the fish feels or thinks. I will feed it and clean its tank but I want it to live....... For my enjoyment not its well being or quality of life. Like Brad said, maybe if the diver never caught the fish he would have been a seals lunch five minutes later.

[lockrookie]

I really wanted a moorish idol I knew they where difficult almost bought one but then I found my false idol (can't remember the name of it) and it appeased my desire lol for now

My tank just has too many issues to speak of right now but for the most part I can keep my fish alive corals not so much. I've tried a sting ray that lasted 4 days poor guy. Would I get another. Most likely not

[EarthEaterBob]

It is a reality that by being in this hobby, we are directly contributing to the degradation of coral reefs and other marine habitats around the world for collection for the aquarium trade. I'd like to say all my stuff is aqua cultured, but it ain't.

On the flip side, collection for the aquarium trade is a very small fraction of what causes habitat loss and falling fish stocks so, eh

Maybe one day we'll only have hand net caught collected in an environmentally sensitive manner and all corals will only come from aquaculture but until then...

[IanWR]

Originally Posted by EarthEaterBob

It is a reality that by being in this hobby, we are directly contributing to the degradation of coral reefs and other marine habitats around the world for collection for the aquarium trade. I'd like to say all my stuff is aqua cultured, but it ain't.

I would agree with you if we are talking about remote, uninhabited regions that would be otherwise untouched but for the aquarium trade. If there are such areas I would support a complete ban on all commercial activities including tourism, only allowing authorized researchers access.

Areas that I am aware of where our aquarium stuff comes from (Fiji, Maldives, Indonesia, Philippines, Hawaii, etc) are places that have people who reside there and the reefs are part of their lives. They are not any better or worse at protecting and conserving their local habitat than we are, which is to say that they are terrible. I live in Saskatchewan. How much natural prairie do we have left? Almost none. Might some of it have been kept if there was a monetary reason to do so? You bet! For people who live near reefs the reefs are often their supply of food, building materials, recreation, and a place to dump garbage. If you are concerned about the amount of live rock harvested for the aquarium trade, think about the amount of rock removed to make roads! By making reefs economically valuable to the people who live there I think we can help preserve and conserve, adding a net positive to reefs that might otherwise be destroyed by typical human activity.