Wholesaler Labels Aquaculture as Immoral!

I hope this doesn't start a bad thread, but I really want to see some discussion on the topic. Pacific Aqua Farms, a large livestock wholesaler, urges us to take a moral stance against aquaculture.

http://marine-engineers.org/2012/03/14/pacific-aqua-farms-condemns-sustainable-aquaculture/

 

Thats what happens when a fool has a title. and his is the owner of the company. He obviously knows the practice exists, yet he thinks its a "trap" when most of those are cared for more than children in some species.lol i mean seriously growing large scale coral isnt for the average joe. And if it was a trap... what does he think about the tanks he sells these fish to?? i mean some ppl arent that educated in the hobby. And some just mess up. it happens but really? a trap? lol thats funny to me.

Its unfortunate that he thinks having something from its natural habitat is what reefers desire... to be honest i dont really care. A fish is a fish is a fish, i know thats general but i mean cmon if i see a nice looking specimen in the tank at my store, im gonna get it. I personally would never seek out that a fish be removed because its hard to get in the aquarium trade, because of aquacultre. They supply a lot of one species, so we see them a lot.

Just naive imo.

 

Hmmm.... i guess the question stand on who you feel is more important, the coral or the people. I look at aquaculture as an amazing innovative way to keep up supply of coral. With higher supply demand is lower.
Also consider that major coral restoration on dead reefs does EXACTLY the same thing as aquaculture it seems enviornmentally that this is a no-brainer for morality.

The tough part gets into the economics of these smaller communities. They have 2 ways to make money: fish or coral. Now im not necessarily talking about fishing for aquaria purposes but that of food. Most coral reefs are destroyed not by the damage of coral, but over-fishing.
Primarily in the carribean, but this can translate across the globe, you can determine how resilient a reef is by two species of fish. Sharks and Parrotfish.

 

I can understand the companies desire to support local people in less affluent countries, but the following statement is extremely misguided (to say the least).

Based on that statement, Pacific Aqua Farms does not want local governments to implement improved conservation measures. Am I reading that incorrectly?

 

The way I read that article, they (PAF) are condemning hacking a large coral off of a natural reef, taking it back to a facility were it's chopped into frags and grown out in large bins. They even quotation "aquaculture" when discussing this method which IMHO, and in agreement with PAF, IS NOT aquaculture. This is raping the reefs to make a multiple profits from a single specimen and then labeling the mini colonies as aquacultured corals. Which they are in essence but not in a healthy for the reef way.
Aquaculture as I see it would be an example like that of PAF. An entire village or country that depends on sustainability from the reef. Papau, New Guinea and the PNG Project come to mind immediately. Villages are taught to grow colonies from frags harvested on the reef and then sell frags of the truly aquacultured specimen.

 

You read right ... lol "Local governments will take more stock in maintaining a higher level of conservation even to the point of preventing the export of livestock from their waters."

Isnt conservation what we need? i mean last i looked our reefs are ruined. He said to prevent taking livestock from the waters, if i had a choice it would be like that all the time, our reefs help give the world close to HALF of its oxygen! If even one "ingredient" in these reefs is destroyed its only a matter of time that everything will be wiped out.

 

Thats horrible! We need to do our BEST to restore our natural reef habitats and have as LITTLE impact as possible. I support aquaculture 110%.

 

"We at Pacific Aqua Farms stand behind the existing workers and suppliers of our trade and do not buy from companies in the aquaculture cottage industry that has sprung up outside of native habitats."

Read this sentence. If you don't understand the meaning of this sentence then you will never understand the meaning behind his stance. Key words: aquaculture, cottage industry, outside of native habitats.

I will come back and touch on my opinion tomorrow as I gots to hit the sack!

 

From that it sounds like he wants to support the people that aquaculture in areas national to corals. The thing I don't understand is how we can break their economy. Keeping coral hasn't been popular for very long, so what we're they doing before the hobbyist sprang up? Also, in any other industry, most people would argue against sending jobs overseas when they can be done here jus as affectivly.

 

They were overfishing to the point that the ecosystem collapses.