Environmentalists and residents of Hawaii are outraged, and rightfully so. Last weekend 610 marine fish were found in the garbage at Honokohau Small Boat Harbor. Workers from the Division of Aquatic Resources were tipped off on the large amount of fish that were thrown away and starting picking through the trash only to stumble upon [...]
Environmentalists and residents of Hawaii are outraged, and rightfully so. Last weekend 610 marine fish were found in the garbage at Honokohau Small Boat Harbor. Workers from the Division of Aquatic Resources were tipped off on the large amount of fish that were thrown away and starting picking through the trash only to stumble upon hundreds of dead ornamentals. Of the 610 that were found, 551 were Yellow Tangs while the remaining 59 appear to be other Surgeons and Butterflyfish.
It is not known what happened here, at best we hope it was an unintentional holding system failure. Either way it is not going to help the case of the aquarium trade–to the media and onlookers, 610 beautiful fish that would have otherwise been alive in the ocean were thrown away in the trash.
Bill Walsh a state aquatic biologist said, “For many, this was the tip of the thing lurking just under the surface. Locally, there have been concerns about the aquarium industry. This includes issues with inconsistent, poor and absent reporting by some collectors and wholesalers. There’s also the renegade element or lack of responsibility from a number of collectors who are systematically poaching fish in marine protected areas. … Many people feel we are granting (tropical fish collectors and exporters) a tremendous privilege by allowing them to make hundreds of thousands of dollars on our reefs and we’re getting nothing in return.”
A friendly reminder that environmentalists and politicians are keeping a close eye on our activity. Thankfully some good is being done out there.
Thanks Sean
