>Finally, (with apologies to non Australian list members) :-) why don't the
>rest of you intelligent people on the list say something instead of just
>Bruce and I? Do you just not give a shit, are you too lazy to respond, or
>scared that someone may disagree with you? I'm sure some of you have
>perspectives, opinions, and information worth sharing. Makes me wonder
>why the hell I bother trying to contribute when no one else does......
Firstly, the reason no one apart from Doc argues with you is not because
someone might disagree with them, but because they might find out they agree
with you. ;-)
And secondIy I do care and I did try, but it is too hard.
And thirdly we have done it to death before and some astute fellow even
provided a succinct summary that everyone thought was fairly spot on.
And then typical to form he through in a few wobbly ones.
>The keeping of fish in outdoor ponds / farm dams in tropical areas should
be
>discouraged unless they are local native ones. Obvious exceptions to
>this are properly designed facilities like Rob's fish farm that have the
>necessary features to prevent escapes during heavy rainfall.
The Queensland DPI Translocation policy was developed with respect to this.
However it was not possible to get it past the first review stage in DPI
without making many exceptions (eg Golden Perch in the Brisbane River). Even
in the diluted form that finally left DPI thousands of Anglers screamed and
the politicians listened. WRT ornamental fish thousands of goldfish keepers
would scream. I heard that even our Prime Minister has goldfish in a pond.
So there has to be a compromise or at least a very long education period
(decades?).
>Australian legislators need to improve their criteria for what fish are
>permitted in Australia and which are not. The present system favours
>illegal importation with it's higher disease risks since once the fish
>are in they can be legally kept. Once a system has been worked out,
>species that are considered to be of reasonable risk should be phased out
>of the aquarium hobby. Sure, what's reasonable and how do you phase them
>out without causing people to release them anyway. We could argue for
>weeks over that. :-)
They should, and we should help them get it right. We might argue for weeks,
they would argue for years.
>ANGFA should develop a policy statement on these issues both to show
>government and industry where it stands on this issue and also to educate
>it's members as to why ANGFA adopted it's position. Fortunately, the
>North American Native Fishes Association (NANFA), our unknown "sister"
>organisation in the US is presently developing this for their
>organisation. It should easy to adapt it to ANGFA's needs so that it can
>be put forth to the membership for comments.
Great. Lets kick back and wait for NANFA to do it hey? Any chance of a copy?
>My main emphasis in all this is be cautious with what we do. I've seen
>both sides of the coin, natural fish communities versus places like
>SWestern US where most fish you see are exotic. I know which one I
>prefer.
There a plenty of folks who don't give a rats.... And these people are the
reason we have to work a compromise. After all Australia is a democracy.
I think all Bruce wants is to get some agreement that this be taken a step
further and promoted as a set of guidelines for fish keepers. Hey Pete why
don't you just summarise what we all think (you can tell us) and save us all
the grief :-)
Rob