[acn-l] collection of wild fish for personal aquariums...questions

Shireen Gonzaga (whimbrel at home.com)
Mon, 14 May 2001 13:33:21 -0400

This is a rather awkward bunch of questions regarding
the collection of wild North American native fishes for
personal aquariums. I have no desire to stir up a hornet's
nest. I'm just looking for thoughtful points-of-view.

Collecting native fishes from the wild for my home
aquariums is something I've done in the past and
thoroughly enjoyed. And it's an accepted practice in
the two native fishes clubs here in North America.

But in a recent conversation with someone from the
U.S. Forest Service, I was told that this was something
that some fisheries biologists would prefer to discourage;
leave the fish in the wild where they belong.

What are the issues to consider about collecting native
fishes in the wild for personal aquariums? (Saying that
it's OK to do since fisherman do it all the time for bait
is an issue that should be considered separately.)

Someone once told me that it's a way to educate and
capture the interest of people. But that does not seem
to be a valid argument for personal collections. A public
aquarium or school aquarium perhaps, but not for
personal use.

The other question: should people who want to keep
native fishes in their personal aquariums be encouraged
to purchase or trade only in captive propagated
specimens, ones that can never be released into the wild
again? Should such an activity be regulated? That would
solve the problem of removing them from the wild, but
it introduces the other problem of "fish dumping," since
natives are more likely to survive in the North American
wild (in places where they don't belong, along with the
associated genetic and pathogenic consequences) than
tropical fish.

I'm interested in hearing what the people on this list
think about this issue, in particular, the fish biologists.
If the hobby of keeping native fishes becomes more
popular (as birding has become in the past decade), it's
something that needs to be seriously thought through.

This reminds me of a good-natured but serious talking-to
I got from a USFWS biologist about my avid shell-
collecting activities .... I was interested in studying growth
trends in some common whelks and picked up just about
every intact shell I could find on the beach. But, she
pointed out, these shells are needed in the natural recycling
processes that go on on beaches, and as homes for small
invertebrates. If I and everyone else grabbed these shells,
what would be left for nature? Since then, I've been much
more careful about what I take from the beaches.

Thanks,
shireen

--
Shireen Gonzaga
Baltimore, MD
whimbrel at home.com

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