The global trade in marine ornamental species

From ocean to aquarium
register mortalities of 30 per cent or more 50 . A 1997
survey of US retailers 98 found that between one third and
more than half of the aquarium fish imported from
Southeast Asia died shortly after arrival, most probably
due to poisons used in capture and/or the stress of
handling and transport.
Cyanide fishing is not without risks to the divers
themselves, who often go to considerable depths
for extended periods of time and may suffer from
decompression sickness, ‘the bends’, upon return to the
surface.
The use of cyanide to capture reef fish originated
in Taiwan and/or the Philippines in the 1960s and was
Cyanide use and corals
One of the greatest threats posed by cyanide fishing is
to reef ecosystems 99, 100 . Cyanide kills non-target
organisms, such as other invertebrates and fish,
although only relatively limited scientific data are
available on this. Reports have demonstrated that
exposure of corals to cyanide causes bleaching xiv, 88, 89 .
Results from a recent study 101 demonstrated that
exposure of colonies of the commonly traded species
Acropora millepora, Goniopora spp., Favites abdita,
Trachyphyllia geoffroyi, Plerogyra spp. (grape coral,
pictured), Heliofungia actiniformis, Euphyllia divisa
and Sarcophyton spp. to varying concentrations of
cyanide over different time periods caused mortality in
all corals (through, for example, bleaching and
progressive tissue detachment from the skeleton).
Acropora, the genus most likely to be specifically
targeted by fishers for the collection of fish, as these
tend to hide amongst its branches, was most
vulnerable to cyanide exposure, showing rapid signs of
stress and bleaching 101 .
specifically targeted at fish destined for the aquarium
market 94, 102, 103 . Estimates suggest that in the mid-1980s
more than 80 per cent of all fish harvested in the
Philippines and destined for the aquarium trade were
collected using cyanide 94 . More recent studies in the
country indicate that 70 per cent of marine ornamental
reef fish are caught with cyanide 102, 104 . Its use then spread
to Indonesia (in about 1985 105 ) where, in the mid-1990s, it
was estimated that about 90 per cent of vessels
transporting live fish in the eastern islands of Indonesia
had cyanide on board 106 . Reports also indicate its use in
Thailand 6 , Papua New Guinea 105, 107 , Malaysia, Viet Nam,
the Maldives 108 and Yemen 109 . There are unconfirmed
reports that its use may have spread to the Red Sea,
Palau, Tanzania, the Seychelles, Sri Lanka, the Marshall
Islands, the Solomon Islands, Fiji and Haiti 108 .
Cyanide fishing is illegal in most countries. In
Indonesia, for example, legislation from 1985 includes
specific prohibition of the use of destructive fishing
practices, such as the use of poison, with penalties up to
ten years in prison and/or a fine of 100 million rupiahs 110
(equivalent to US$12,000). The marine police and navy, in
collaboration with the fisheries service, are in charge of
enforcing the law 110 . However, the high premium paid
(often allowing for large bribes), the ease with which a
great number of fish can be caught in a short time period,
the often poor law enforcement capacities and high levels
of corruption have allowed the use of poison to spread
rapidly throughout the Asia-Pacific region 102 and have
made the eradication of this illegal and highly destructive
fishing technique nearly impossible.
In 1989, the Haribon Foundation in collaboration
with Ocean Voice implemented, in the Philippines, the
Alternative to Cyanide Fishing project in order to train
aquarium collectors in the use of nets as an alternative to
sodium cyanide. Results showed that 29 per cent of the
trainees monitored were fully converted net users whilst
the majority of fishers persisted in using sodium cyanide,
though at a greatly reduced rate 111 . Subsequently, the
Philippines government and the International Marinelife
Alliance implemented a second, more aggressive
programme to retrain fishers in alternatives to
cyanide 51, 112 . Public campaigns in the media and schools
are also helping to raise awareness about the values of the
reefs of the Philippines and the negative impacts of cyanide
fishing 113 . Five cyanide-detection facilities, capable of
detecting low levels of cyanide in fish tissues as well as
organs, have also been established. After five years of
intensive efforts, live reef fish that test positive for cyanide
declined from 80 per cent in 1993 to 20 per cent in 1998 51, 98 .
A similar programme initiated in Indonesia for
fishers in northern Sulawesi showed that barrier nets did
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