From: jason@lanai.cs.ucla.edu (Jason Rosenberg)
Subject: Highlights and quotes from original Audubon article
Organization: UCLA, Computer Science Department
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 92 20:27:22 GMT

I just want to clear up some things, from the Audubon article
(March/April, 1992, pg48-56):

The author is a man, Mark Derr.

The annual tonnage I originally posted was off by a few orders of magnitude
(sorry about that!).  It reports that between 500 and 600 tons of live rock
were carried off the Florida Reef Tract in a 2 year period between 1989-1991.

It says that: "Jeffrey Turner, owner of Exotic Aquaria in Miami, told the
Marine Fisheries Commission in July 1991 that his business alone requires
50 tons of live rock a year."  It didn't say whether Turner is a store owner,
a distributor, and importer, or what, however.  Still 50 tons is 50 tons.

There is a quote of Julian Sprung, possibly taken out of context:
"Collectors are convenient targets.  People are the problem along the reef."

James Proter, a professor of zoology at U. of Georgia said that the Florida
reef tracts "most beautiful and productive areas are declining so rapidly, they
might have fewer than 10 years to live.  In a telephone interview, he said, 
'When we dive and snorkel outside the sanctuaries where we have our monitors,
we see examples of large areas of destruction from live-rock collection.  We
don't have scientific data, but we can see it."

Charles Delbeek is pictured next to a beautiful aquarium (congrats Charles).
The caption says "Charles Delbeek, an aquarist in Toronto, says bans on
live-rock collection will ruin the industry."

"According to some estimates, 99 percent of the animals on the marine-aquarium
market are captured in the wild."

On the Phillipine cyanide collection situation:  "McAllister said that 400 of 
the 1500 people working the reef are now catching fish by hand, although
providing them with nets and breaking the power of middlemen, who also supply
the sodium cyanide, is proving difficult".

Walter Jaap is quoted: "'If you go to an airport and open a container of live
rock, there's no water. Animals are dying. There's a putrid sulfide smell'".

"Jaap reports that in Florida, 'the visibility of macro-invertebrates has 
diminished over the past ten years.  There is a feeling that the Oreaster 
'Bahama' star is nearly gone.'  The state recently moved to ban the taking of 
the starfish, a favorite among curio dealers, and to impose a bag limit on
Condylactis gigantea, the pink-tipped anemone, after marine-life collectors
themselves reported a severe drop in its numbers.  (Reportedly, the giant
carpet anemone has nearly vanished from the Phillipines)....In targeting
certain species, collectors may also alter the ecology of the reef....'When
you take too many of one species, everything else suffers.'....in Sri Lanka
coral-eating stars, Acanthaster planci, increased dramatically in numbers when
fish that fed on their larvae were depleted through collection."

"In the long run, aquaculture probably presents the most ecological and 
economical alternative to collection.  Frank Hoff, an aquaculturist in 
Dade City, Florida, who thinks the state has not done enough to support his 
industry, said some conchs, clams, and even live rock are currently raised in 
tanks. A few marine fish--neon gobies, damselfish, and clown fish--are also 
farmed on a limited basis, and it is possible to breed others, although the 
task is more difficult than for freshwater species.  He believes that certain 
anemones and soft corals are also prime candidates for commercial propagation.  
Despite the potential, investment capital has not been forthcoming because 
wild-caught marine animals remain abundant and less expensive than their 
captive-bred cousins.

"Germany outlawed the importation and sale of butterfly fish, angelfish, 
lampreys, and Moorish idols.  It has banned the sale of certain corals
and clams as well.  But the United States and Canada have done nothing to force
the pet industry to cut down on mortality rates."

The conclusion:
"North American hobbyists alone spend some $240 million a year on equipment and
animals, and there is seemingly no limit to their appetite.  Some take care not
to purchase coral, live rock from reefs, and other fragile organisms; many
do not.  But the loss of animals and habitat is becoming so apparent that the
question may soon be when, not whether, wild collection will end through 
legislation or through population collapse."



-- 
Jason Rosenberg                           Computer Science Department
jason@cs.ucla.edu                         University of California
{uunet,rutgers,ucbvax}!ucla-cs!jason      Los Angeles, CA  90024
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria