NOAA to Propose Ban on import of Bangaii Cardinal

[Jgents]

Here is a link to the full NOAA proposal:

https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2023-17492.pdf?utm_source=federalregister.gov&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pi+subscription+mailing+list

People can and should make comments during the open period.

The Banggai virus is still a huge issue, here is some text I wrote about that:

Banggai Cardinalfish Iridovirus (BCIR)
This fish was originally discovered in 1933 but then lost to science for about 60 years, when the Banggai cardinalfish (Pterapogon kauderni) was “rediscovered” and began entering the tropical fish trade. Aquarists noted how hardy the species was and that they were very easy to reproduce in captivity. A decade later, the price for wild-caught Banggai cardinalfish had decreased fivefold, but the animals were now considered very delicate, with high losses seen in newly acquired wild fish.

What was the cause of this sudden change in the apparent health of this species in captivity? Poor handling, collection with cyanide (unlikely), and bacterial disease were all suggested as possible reasons for this change. A researcher then published a study showing that the presence of an iridovirus was associated with episodes of mass mortality in newly imported cardinalfish (Weber et al. 2009). A similar virus has since been isolated from the common batfish, Platax orbicularis (Sriwanayos et al. 2013), but a corresponding high mortality in aquarium fish of that species has not been noted, perhaps because many fewer batfish are imported for the pet trade than the ever-popular Banggai cardinalfish.

Since there is no cure for this viral disease, captive-raised fish that were never exposed to wild stock, or fish that have subsequently developed immunity by surviving an infection would be the best choices for aquarists. Avoid inexpensive wild-caught Banggai Cardinalfish. Not only do they have a poor survival record, but they’re also being collected at such a high rate that wild populations are locally threatened with extinction.

Jay

Jay, as always I appreciate this insight - thank you for putting this together.

 

[Jgents]

Thanks for tagging us, I actually read this this morning and we contacted a few of our friends regarding this issue. I've been working on getting some captive-bred banggai cardinalfish out of Indo for the last few months and it has proven difficult. Obviously many of us in the industry have our own biases (myself included). Personally, I think when owning an aquarium it's a window to the oceans and nature that many of us don't get to see often so it should give us a bit of insight on how habitat degradation, climate change, or similar issues may occur in the wild (pumping a bunch of CO2 into your aquarium is a fast way to learn about ocean acidification).

The big issue here is this species of cardinalfish is in an extremely weird situation. Where they are native their populations have drastically decreased both due to the aquarium trade and habitat disruption and they really need to be protected. On the other hand much of the "protection" that was given to them was to introduce them to other regions in indo basically making them invasive in other areas impacting wildlife and messing with their genetics.

They are one of the easier fish to breed in captivity but not as many people are breeding them as there should be due to their low fecundity. I even proposed that we should be breeding them in the states a few years ago but hasn't come to fruition yet (this situation may change that). Another wrench that gets thrown in specifically with this species they have a species specific virus that wipes out large percentages of them that can be transmitted very easily that can't be cured (like if any wild or captive bred are mixed at a wholesaler or fish store). You can find more information on that by googling "Systemic iridovirus infection in the Banggai cardinalfish".

Before jumping the gun and claiming the industry is crumbling and they're coming for your tanks it might be best to reach out to the incredibly dedicated scientists working on things like this to protect species from going extinct. We reached out earlier this morning and got some details regarding the possible ban, reasoning, and importance.

tl;dr: Fish bans sometimes are a good thing, don't shoot the messenger, NOAA is not PETA, scientists are nerds. Also this is Jake from Biota and not necessarily the views of Biota

Thanks Jake - Glad to have your thoughts here, and appreciate what you and Biota do.

 

[FeliciaM]

Dr. Vagelli is still fighting for protection of this species today. Yes, today, August 17th, 2023. I'd wager that no one alive knows more about this species than he does. Since he is the expert on the topic, I defer to him.

https://www.tfhmagazine.com/articles/saltwater/dr-alejandro-vagelli-and-the-banggai-cardinalfish

 

[herozero]

Sadly, they add utterly ridiculous opinions into their argument. I have no opinion on whether this regulation is appropriate or not, but this write up really turns me off to the authors position.

““Scientists have estimated that 75%-80% of the fish collected from the wild die even before they’re exported.” Surely it is not the job of a scientist to estimate anything, and who were they, and when did they conduct their studies? ”

It’s certainly fine to ask about the studies, but to suggest that “Surely it is not the job of a scientist to estimate anything,”

What an unbelievably ignorant comment. Estimating things is EXACTLY what scientists do.

Agree 100%, that line made me cringe.

 

[flashsmith]

Never have I ever walked into a shop or browsed an online supplier and said I gotta have one of those. I understand though that these fish are only found in a small area and not widespread. So this is probably best considering they are readily available captive bred. I would honestly prefer all captive bred but I don't think the process is developed enough to supply the hobby with a variety of species at reasonable prices.

 

[Northern Flicker]

Nice how they touched on "habitat loss" and "climate change" (the new catch phrase for global warming).

That’s their new catch phrase to get their way on what they want.

The key (IMHO) point in the article: "And that is yet another blow to the aquarium trade and a potential win for those who believe that animals of ANY KIND should not be kept as anyone’s pet. "

This is actually the philosophy of various national organizations (that animals should not be kept as pets).

It never ceases to amaze me that reefkeeping, of all hobbies, includes climate change deniers and anti-environmentalists.

Imagine owning a reef and also thinking habitat and species preservation is woke agenda.

Thank God we have some real scientists and nerds on our side.

 

[Jgents]

It never ceases to amaze me that reefkeeping, of all hobbies, includes climate change deniers and anti-environmentalists.

Imagine owning a reef and also thinking habitat and species preservation is “woke agenda”.

Thank God we have some real scientists and nerds on our side.

Right?!?!

 

[Northern Flicker]

Right?!?!

There were people giving Randy a hard time for owning an electric vehicle in the last climate thread.

These same people cringe when their Apex shows their temps rise 2dF, and pipe in air with less CO2 into their tanks to keep it healthy.

Make it make sense.

 

[MnFish1]

It never ceases to amaze me that reefkeeping, of all hobbies, includes climate change deniers and anti-environmentalists.

Imagine owning a reef and also thinking habitat and species preservation is woke agenda.

Thank God we have some real scientists and nerds on our side.

It never ceases to amaze me how some people take a comment and twist that into some kind of odd point that the quotes are from 'climate change deniers'.

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

It never ceases to amaze me that reefkeeping, of all hobbies, includes climate change deniers and anti-environmentalists.

Imagine owning a reef and also thinking habitat and species preservation is “woke agenda”.

Thank God we have some real scientists and nerds on our side.

Exactly. These same people know full well that if they poured a bunch of pollutants into their reef, it'd die. Same thing happens in the ocean, they claim it isn't real. It blows my mind that the health of our world has fallen along political lines. Some day, children will read history books about us, and they'll shake their heads and say; "What a bunch of hypocrites".

 

[Northern Flicker]

Dr. Vagelli is still fighting for protection of this species today. Yes, today, August 17th, 2023. I'd wager that no one alive knows more about this species than he does. Since he is the expert on the topic, I defer to him.

https://www.tfhmagazine.com/articles/saltwater/dr-alejandro-vagelli-and-the-banggai-cardinalfish

Great post, thanks for the link. I miss TFH!

 

[AydenLincoln]

What this doesn’t mention or you may not know is the sale of banggai cardinalfish including captive bred ones would be banned entirely. VOTE NO ON THIS BILL/VOICE YOUR CONCERNS! https://www.regulations.gov/

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

What this doesn’t mention or you may not know is the sale of banggai cardinalfish including captive ones would be banned entirely. VOTE NO ON THIS BILL/VOICE YOUR CONCERNS! https://www.regulations.gov/

No. It's just exports and imports. There's no way to tell if they're captive bred or not if they're being imported, so it's still the right thing to do.

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

What this doesn’t mention or you may not know is the sale of banggai cardinalfish including captive bred ones would be banned entirely. VOTE NO ON THIS BILL/VOICE YOUR CONCERNS! https://www.regulations.gov/

Here's text from it.

"This rule proposes to prohibit the import into and export from the United States and its territories. No other prohibitions under section 9 of the ESA would be applied. A person would continue to be able to deliver, receive, carry, transport, ship, sell, offer to sell, purchase, or offer to purchase Banggai cardinalfish in interstate commerce. Although we do not have current data, we believe there are a number of Banggai cardinalfish in the United States. However, we have no information to suggest that interstate commerce activities within the United States are associated with threats to Banggai cardinalfish or would negatively affect any efforts aimed at the recovery of wild populations of the species, and therefore we are not proposing to prohibit those activities."

They're not going to ban the sale of fish within the country. That wouldn't do anything and would be overreach, which they want to avoid as much as we do. Read more into stuff like this before forming such strong opinions.

 

[AydenLincoln]

No. It's just exports and imports. There's no way to tell if they're captive bred or not if they're being imported, so it's still the right thing to do.

I still don’t agree with this. There is though by buying from reputable breeders/suppliers. Only a fraction of banggai cardinals are aquacultured here in the US. In general I’m against fish bans. Great strides have been taken with this species over years and I don’t think banning imports of the fish is the answer which includes captive ones. https://www.qualitymarine.com/news/...the-import-or-export-of-banggai-cardinalfish/

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

I still don’t agree with this. There is though by buying from reputable breeders/suppliers. Only a fraction of banggai cardinals are aquacultured here in the US. In general I’m against fish bans. Great strides have been taken with this species over years and I don’t think banning imports of the fish is the answer which includes captive ones. https://www.qualitymarine.com/news/...the-import-or-export-of-banggai-cardinalfish/

I really don't think a ban on importing this species in particular would have too much of an impact. The worst case scenario would be slightly increased prices due to being aquacultured in America.

 

[Northern Flicker]

I still don’t agree with this. There is though by buying from reputable breeders/suppliers. Only a fraction of banggai cardinals are aquacultured here in the US. In general I’m against fish bans. Great strides have been taken with this species over years and I don’t think banning imports of the fish is the answer which includes captive ones. https://www.qualitymarine.com/news/...the-import-or-export-of-banggai-cardinalfish/

How can you be against something “in general” when so many different potential scenarios exist? Doesn’t each case deserve it’s own consideration?

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

Oh wait I understand now. I still don’t agree with this. There is though by buying from reputable breeders/suppliers. Only a fraction of banggai cardinals are aquacultured here in the US. In general I’m against fish bans. Great strides have been taken with this species over years and I don’t think banning imports of the fish is the answer which includes captive ones. https://www.qualitymarine.com/news/...the-import-or-export-of-banggai-cardinalfish/

What fraction is captive bred? 99/100 is still a fraction. You'll need to be more specific.

While it would be nice to see less strict regulations if it were reasonable, when the very existence of a millennia-old species is on the line, sometimes you need to go for the slightly inconvenient option. Did you know that their population in the wild is about 10% of what it was 40 years ago before this mass importation thing started? Another 15 years, and they might be gone from the face of the earth.

In a free society, you can't just ban something entirely and expect that to be the end. They aren't banning the species, they know that wouldn't help a thing. It would just make the trade harder to enforce and create a black market. Think Prohibition. Instead, they're creating a compromise route which works for everyone.

 

[Acros]

It is also hard to say what captive-bred means coming from Indonesia. Often, it is still wild-caught. At one point, " farms " trapped juvenile tangs in nets and grew them to be sold as "captive bred."

 

[AydenLincoln]

Going to leave this here!

Good evening,

Thank you for the dialog surrounding the Banggai Cardinalfish and proposed ban on import and export of Banggai cardinalfish into and out of the U.S. regardless of the source, which includes aquacultured (farmed or captive bred) fish.

The trade recognized the need well over a decade ago, and worked to establish large, commercial aquaculture farms overseas to reduce the pressure on this species which has a very restricted range in Indonesia.

The vast majority of Banggai Cardinalfish available in the U.S. are from overseas aquaculture farms, the largest of which is located in Taiwan, and produces thousands of aquacultured Banggai per month.

While aquaculture does in fact exists in the U.S. for the species, it is only a very small fraction of total volume. Domestic production at scale is very difficult, being labor and space intensive, and will therefore likely never grow cost effectively to meet demand.

I hope this adds a bit more clarity to this discussion, and for additional insight on this topic I encourage interested individuals to read a recent article by Vincent Chalias who lives in Indonesia and has extensive knowledge about this species and the plight of the Banggai Cardinalfish. https://www.reef2rainforest.com/2023/08/22/are-banggai-cardinals-depleted-in-the-wild/

Kevin Kohen
Quality Marine
Los Angeles, CA