BANNED! But Is There Still Hope?

[Sunny Goold]

Every single person who has walked into my home is immediately drawn to the aquarium. Every. Single. One. You simply CANNOT say that for educational videos on reefs. The conversation always begins with amazement and ends with respect. Amazement for the corals, fish, colors, symbiosis, and respect for the complexity and fragility. I've had a few house parties and family and friends over and every single conversation began and ended like that. Living in CO (from CA), not a lot of the people around here have ever seen a coral reef -- this is their first time aside from our kinda lame public aquarium. So this shows them these things are real, in danger, and incredibly fragile.

Does the collection of species in the wild have an outweighing negative impact? I personally disagree, though I have no data to back that. I just know the people that I've had the opportunity to educate will be better at our beaches, more careful of their habits in sensitive areas, etc.

IMO our problems are pollution and unsustainable commercial fishing, not aquarium collection. I fail to understand how collection impacts the planet. I believe there's a YT video on how Hawaii fisheries are growing in numbers despite collection (before the ban)... how do you ban in the face of documented facts contrary to your initiative?

There are scientists doing *exactly* what mariculture companies are doing to reseed reefs... yet these are banned? It's illogical. Take away the corals and fish from the wild for us yet also ban our sustainable efforts? This helps no-one, really it harms our progress as a whole.

Certainly I agree the mortality rate in this hobby is unacceptable -- but that's an internal problem to be fixed with education and the hope that, one day, our LFS's will act out of responsibility.

This is awesome! [emoji122] I [emoji817] % AGREE [emoji95][emoji119]