View Full Version : ACK! Please don't tell me our fish get to us this way.
sdveirs
12-16-2007, 12:29 PM
http://oceanworld.tamu.edu/students/coral/coral5.htm
It is so hard to tell where LFS and Fisheries get their stock, but this is bad.
:angryfire::angryfire::angryfire::angryfire:
Thats awful, what is the planet coming to! It kind of makes me a little guilty for keeping fish
sdveirs
12-16-2007, 1:21 PM
Thats awful, what is the planet coming to! It kind of makes me a little guilty for keeping fish
Tell me about it, I wonder if they are using dynamite to blast apart the reef for the rock, or what. I can't imagine any other reason.
The poor fish.
I hope the only reason someone would do that is because they are homeless and can't afford food. But I don't belive that. Can you say greedy and who cares who gets hurt for a buck?
sdveirs
12-16-2007, 1:22 PM
Sorry, this should probably be in a different forum - moderators, can you move this properly (out of the noob forum), thanks.
Unfortunately cyanide is still used by some as well.
Fishieness
12-16-2007, 4:53 PM
another great reason to buy aquacultured corals and fish :)
clown-lover
12-16-2007, 6:38 PM
I just wish more stores would list the source of the fish they receive in their stores.
Me too, but sometimes the best we can do is at least know the region they come from as some locations have stricter laws than others. A yellow tang for instance..if it comes from Hawaii there is a better chance of it being collected responsibily.
mike_nikki
12-17-2007, 10:33 PM
My question is why they never use a different pic of a guy blowing stuff up ......i have seen that pic everywhere for years, but never a different pic of people blowing the reef up...always that same guy same position and same area of upwelling from the explosion
Grins
12-17-2007, 10:56 PM
Maybe the guys that do it don't like to have their photos taken? =)
Sploke
12-17-2007, 11:06 PM
another great reason to buy aquacultured corals and fish :)
Agreed....always ask for captive-bred livestock at your LFS.
Charlesr1958
12-18-2007, 10:30 AM
Tell me about it, I have visited a particular reef for the last four years and have watched it slowly degrade due to any number of human activities. But the last straw was this last weekend when I had a friend in town visiting over the weekend and took him out to see "my" reef.
http://home2.pacific.net.ph/~sweetyummy42/blastfishing1.jpg
This was once a living acropora field that my wife and I used to love drifting over. It has now been blown to bits with the concussion shock wave killing (ruptures) the coral's tissue.
http://home2.pacific.net.ph/~sweetyummy42/blastfishing2.jpg
This was a reef covered boulder the size of my living room that has been hit so many times with dynamite that it cracked the boulder to where it fell over.
http://home2.pacific.net.ph/~sweetyummy42/blastfishing3.jpg
If its not blown apart, then they just flip the entire coral over and leave it that way. Each time I dive or snorkel, I spend the majority of my time just turning coral encrusted rocks back over. In fact, almost all of the rocks in the shallows are turned over so frequently that they have corals growing on both sides of the rocks!! I showed this to my friend and he freaked out.
Chuck
Lupin
12-18-2007, 10:39 AM
Maybe the guys that do it don't like to have their photos taken? =)
:grinyes:
It's a shame the reefs are being destroyed.:( I live in Philippines and I see several beaches not even clean enough to swim in.:lipssealedsmilie:
animalman
12-18-2007, 12:28 PM
This is so sad...all the lil fishes and coral. NO ONE cares bout the next generation who will have to deal with the consequences. Been seeing this on discovory The planet in peril. It does make you feel kinda guilty, but I only will only keep tank raised fish. No wild caught fish in my tank.
Subliminal
12-18-2007, 2:39 PM
While I'm not going to argue that some of the things said in that article are true (as per users posts above), some of it is total crap.
Global Warming, for example, is pretty much around to pay Al Gore. It's debatable at best. We don't have records far enough back to talk about global trends, and the rest is just theory. Besides, most everything alive is adaptable, and 1 degree over a zillion years is probably within the coral's range of adaptation. Heck, there's probably 2 or 3 active threads right now about what temp do you keep your tank at...and there's an acceptable range, but many different temps are successful.
Now I've seen thousands of fragged corals. Some of them are fragged on purpose, but a lot of them fall over and break. It may take a few years for those coral to reach back to the splendid shape they were before they broke, but as long as the water conditions are still good for them (ie, they didn't break and drop 30 feet further underwater), they'd most likely grow back.
Overfishing is another one which I have a hard time believing. Maybe the # of fish will drop substantially before righting itself, but that happens a lot. Back in Alaska where I grew up, for example, wolves would overhunt caribou. The caribou would die in alarming #s. Well, then the wolves would lose out on food and eventually they'd die off. Which would bring a growth spurt to the population of caribou again and the circle of life continues.
So it probably will be with the 'nuissance' algae the article discusses. Maybe the ugly fish that aren't tasty will be the ones left to eat the stuff after a couple of decades, but...
Anyway, like I said, I'm not trying to say that the reefs are not in danger, just that that particular article is one which I believe should be taken with a grain of salt.
NO ONE cares bout the next generation who will have to deal with the consequences.
I do have to disagree with that. There is work being done by many in marineculture and aquaculture. Some are trying to learn how to support harder to care for stock as well so that we can repopulate reefs. Money is limited of course and much of the work is done by experienced hobbyists.
But there are also many that care that are not as experienced, or able to dedicate the time towards the above. We can buy as much as we can from other reefers and when shopping with retailers look towards cultured choices in cases where they are available (even if it means a special order versus getting it today)
My anemone for instance, I didn't want to be part of them being removed from the reef so I bought one that was a clone from another's tank. It was in one of my LFS, so it isn't neccessary to know the other reefer. Many here also try to buy frags from other's tanks versus colonies taken from the ocean.
There are many people who care.
animalman
12-18-2007, 6:30 PM
Grins you're right...some people care. I see your point and Subliminal also. I was angry on lunch break, about how some people only care bout money and will do anything for it nomatter if it hurts someone or something. Then I read this thread and I was venting. Didn't mean to offend anyone just wish more people cared bout the world around them. And yes I've seen in FL. for example they are making man made reefs as I'm sure round the world they do the same. Sorry for venting my anger here. :)
I wasn't offended, no worries there.