The global trade in marine ornamental species

Conservation issues
not prove to be an effective collection method and many
collectors have been slow to switch to nets or have
reverted to cyanide after the net training programme 102 .
Although considerable demand for ‘green’ marine
products exists in overseas specialty markets, and
possibly even locally, the markets have failed to convey
this to producers in an explicit way.
Consequently, an ever-increasing percentage of
fishes are caught in Australia, Hawaii, Florida, the Greater
Caribbean 6, 102 and the Pacific Islands such as Fiji, where
collectors are often the exporters (90 per cent in
Australia 40 ) and are known to use more sustainable capture
techniques, such as nets. As a result, survivorship postcapture
is higher and mortality for the target species
following shipping and handling often negligible.
There is hope that the use of cyanide can be
curtailed. However, in order to accomplish this a number of
major steps are required. The first, and probably the most
difficult one, requires governments of source countries to
face up to this problem by reforming their policies and
strengthening their institutions (e.g. mount public
awareness campaigns in the media and schools; regulate
the importation, distribution and use of cyanide). Secondly,
governments of importing countries must take steps to
reinforce measures adopted by the source countries (e.g.
monitor imports of live fish and provide data to exporting
countries; raise awareness of the impacts of cyanide
fishing) 102 . A reduction in the number of middlemen often
involved would help ensure that a greater percentage of the
price paid by exporters for ornamental fish goes to
collectors. Consumers also have an important role to play:
if sufficient numbers of informed consumers demand fish
that have been caught using sustainable techniques it is
likely that this will have important positive repercussions
on fishing methods in Southeast Asia.
IMPACTS ON POPULATIONS
Most traders argue that the collection of marine
ornamentals for the aquarium trade has no negative
impact on reef fish populations. This is likely to be true for
fisheries that are fairly small in comparison to the
available resource base (fish population). A study in the
Cook Islands showed that the total catch per unit effort
remained constant between 1990 and 1994 114 , an indicator
that fish populations on these islands were probably being
harvested sustainably. In Australia, through the use of
permits, the aquarium trade fishery is such that current
levels of exploitation are sustainable 41 . However, Australia
is an unusual case, as the Great Barrier Reef is the
largest reef system in the world. The available habitat and
the interconnectivity of fish populations provide resilience
to adverse effects from a comparatively small marine
A typical collector’s boat, called bancas, in the Philippines.
ornamental fishery 41 . Nevertheless, no matter how large
a fishery is, not all fish are equally available or equally
attractive to the industry and the most common fish are
not necessarily those most favoured by hobbyists.
Consequently, the effects of collecting for the aquarium
fish trade should be measured with respect to their
potential to deplete particular species or locations rather
than viewed in terms of their global impact 41 .
Several countries in Asia and South America, for
example, have begun to implement collection restrictions
of certain ornamental fish species due to fears of
reduction beyond recovery of population numbers 115 and
possible restructuring of reef communities due to
sustained collection pressures on favoured species 18, 47 .
Although no marine species collected for the aquarium
trade is known to have been driven to global extinction,
studies carried out in Sri Lanka 116 , Kenya 116 , the
Philippines 117, 118 , Indonesia 119 and Hawaii 120 and anecdotal
information from Australia 41 all reported localized
depletion of a number of target aquarium species of fish
(e.g. butterflyfish, angelfish), due to heavy collecting
pressure. However, there is a need for improved information
on fishing effort 121 , catch and location, as well as
more research on the effects of collection of fish for the
aquarium trade. To date, most evaluations of direct
impacts of the aquarium trade on reef fish (coral and
invertebrates) populations come from visual censuses of
fish densities, calculations of potential yield from
35