Someone showed this on my Local Forums and think that any Saltwater advocates should know about this.
"Snorkel Bob" is now a part of the Sea Shepherds. He is a huge advocate of shutting down the marine aquarium hobby, so something to watch. It is something of concern as being a part of the Sea Shepherds gains advocates of shutting down the hobby a boost in publicity.
Here it is http://thegardenisland.com/news/local/snorkel-bob-joins-sea-shepherd-board-of-directors/article_3fc5817c-347b-11e2-b596-001a4bcf887a.html
I couldn't agree more - I have a 150 gallon salt tank in my classroom. I use it to talk to my students about marine ecology. Simply by maintaining one in the classroom they can see first hand the importance of keeping our environment "clean". Also the fish that I bring in are captive bread (as far as I know).I don't understand how these people think putting nature further and further out of reach for people by eliminating these plant & animal hobbies is supposed to help the environment(???).
Isn't an important part of protecting the environment having advocates among the people who care about nature?
Not Too many people keep tuna or other types seafood as aquarium pets... you are mixing in 2 different issues here. Over fishing for food production and plucking animals out of the wild for keeping as a "pet" as two vastly different things. I agree with most of what you said, but I disagree on the comment about the hobby being insignificantly small. You said it yourself, all of these things come into play.Overfishing for the seafood industry, while primarily targeting different environs, will also do far more damage to the ocean ecosystems then our hobby.
But our hobby is insignificantly small compared to the seafood industry, or the corporations that want to block any sort of talk about carbon emissions.
I feel weird for saying this, but I agree with them... The saltwater hobby as a whole is detrimental to the marine environment. Not only does it damage populations of certain species, it also is very damaging to the ecosystem as a whole with the introduction of invasive organisms such as the lionfish in the Caribbean. Personally, I would be very hesitant about getting anything for a saltwater tank that was not possible to breed in a domestic environment.
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The fresh water keepers are not free of guilt when it comes to invasive species:
Snake Heads, Blue Catfish, etc.
The saltwater hobby is by no means perfect, but private aquarium owners have done a great deal in advancing the husbandry of marine fish and corals. In fact they put many public aquariums to shame. There is a compromise position, by keeping tank raised fish and identifying those wild caught species that do well in captivity, banning the sale of those fish that clearly have low survival rates in captivity.
It is the frag. coral industry that has made new steps in restoring some depleted reefs. As with fresh water aquariums we all have to be responsible for our systems. (I do not have a SW tank.)