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Effect of aquariums on the environment - some issues

© Winston Vaughan Schoenfeld

The article this month is dedicated to a web article I found written by the Associated Press. Many of us are not aware of the effect of aquariums on the environment, as well as the sources for many of the fish and other species we put in them. Below is an article with some valid points, although I must say that it is not the only side of the story. I have included a discussion afterwards about my thoughts on this issue, and some information that you may find useful.

=================================================== Home aquariums pose growing threat to reefs, experts say

November 1, 1999 Web posted at: 6:54 PM EST (2354 GMT) CHRISTIANSTED, U.S. Virgin Islands (AP) -- Home aquarium owners, most in the United States, are threatening fragile reefs by buying up tons of the world's coral and tropical fish, experts say.

Enthusiasts are buying up live coral at a rate that has increased 12 to 30 percent a year since 1990, according to reports to be presented Tuesday at a U.S. government conference on coral reefs.

The demand to fill fish tanks is fueling a thriving trade in illegal harvesting, with divers squirting cyanide into reefs to stun fish and killing smaller fish and coral in the process. Only one in 10 captured fish survives, researchers from the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force said.

"Hobbyists have a love of these critters," said Roger Griffis, a Department of Commerce policy analyst. "If they knew it was harming the reef, they would be appalled."

The U.S. Coral Reef Task Force is meeting on the U.S. Virgin Island of St. Croix to consider ways to preserve reefs and mull reports by its committees of scientists, business leaders and government officials. U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is to address the conference Tuesday.

Earlier conservation efforts have focused on threats like pollution and global change. But early arrivals at the conference Monday said aquarium enthusiasts are becoming a real threat.

Two-thirds of the world's 1.5 million aquarium hobbyists live in the United States. They buy half of the aquarium fish and up to 80 percent of the coral traded in the world, the task force's committee on international trade said. The next largest importers are Germany and Japan.

Since the United States bans harvesting of coral in its own waters, most of the supply comes from loosely protected reefs in poorer countries. Most aquarium fish come from Indonesia and the Philippines, and more than half are harvested with cyanide in violation of local laws, the task force said.