Furthermore, the use of poisons to collect fish for a commercial venture
cannot be morally justified. In my interviews with aquarium fishers, many
believe that the use of sodyum is morally wrong. However, economic realities
and poverty drive a hard reality. I have not known anyone who has used
bleach. Bleach is not readily available in many coastal communities and you
would have to travel several kilometers to the nearest town commercial
center to get one. If it is available, it is probably expensive. I have
talked to a fisher who used menthol candies dissolved in alcohol. But this
is to catch marine invertebrates.
I am more concerned about the effect of poisons [cyanide, bleach and
quinaldine included] to the benthic components of reef communities.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that corals do not die immediately but bleach.
If this is true, then the symbiosis between coral and zooxanthellae is first
disrupted by the poison's effects.
Unfortunately, there is very little science done on the subject. I hope that
many marine science students will take up the challenge and work on this
subject. There is more in the literature about cyanide's effects on fish.
Let us note that people have been studying cyanide effects on fish for a
long time. I don't think that some of these papers that have been published
in peer reviewed journals belong in the realm of "pseudoscience". Still more
has to be done to improve and advance the science.
I hope that people in the aquarium fish consuming countries, will realize
that aquarium fishing is part of a larger coral reef fishery that is a
multi-species one. Most of the fishery is done in developing countries and
show what Pauly et al (1989) described as "Malthusian overfishing". This
kind of fishing exists in a situation of poverty and lack of alternatives.
Fishers begin to destroy the resource base on which their existence depends.
All these to augment their income. Cyanide fishing is just one of the
manifestations of Malthusian overfishing. Blast fishing, use of small meshed
nets and muro-ami are other examples.
The solution to solving the problems of overfishing in coral reef fisheries
simply lies in augmenting the income of fishers and providing alternatives
in the whole context of human development. That is what we should be
thinking as responsible and concerned aquarists. Our hobby has a great
social dimension. Its easy to say this but workable solutions are hard to do.
Benjamin Vallejo, Jr.
Marine Aquarium Program
Aquarium Science Association of the Philippines, Inc. (ASAP)
Quezon City, Philippines
benval at mnl.sequel.net
URL http://www.sequel.net/~benval/
>I would like some documentation that quinaldine is damaging to reefs in the
>manner in which it is applied to specific fishes hiding in holes. I've used
>it, and frankly have never found it to be any more abusive than chasing a
>fish into a cluster of stony branching corals. - Bob Goldstein, 919-872-1174
>or RJGA at AOL.COM. As to cyanide collecting, other than the rabid rantings of
>one writer in FAMA, it seems cyanide is a method of collecting food fish, not
>aquarium fish, so can we please drop that garbage from the discussion? In the
>Philippines and some other places, bleach and other cheap chemicals work to
>collect fish that sometimes temporarily recover. And frankly, cyanide kills
>or it doesn't; there is no such thing as a chronic effect. The report a
>couple of years ago of damaged intestinal lining was a classic of
>pseudoscience, which ought to be dumped from our discussions too. If you want
>information on cyanide's effects, look to qualified veterinarians,
>physicians, biochemists, and other qualified scientists, and forget about the
>work of dummies with stains and no background in pathology.
>
>