Environmental Impact of our Hobby.
 

So, do we help, or do we hinder? How so?

If man hadn't invented corals for his fish tank, then all the leftover corals from our tank shutdowns would have never populated the oceans (when we discarded them into the sea) and grown into the beautiful coral reefs we see today. You're welcome Planet Earth, you're welcome.

I think we've done both.

Back when the hobby first started we probably did a lot of harm, things didn't survive well and we weren't careful how we took things from the reef.

But thanks to that we now have better systems, are able to keep the animals alive, breed many species and put things back into the reef

The way things are going in general, soon the only place you will be able to see a reef is in a tank.

Imo, the hobby is not the biggest threat or impact to reefs at this time.

I go out for hours and this is it? :)

I guess this spawns from a comment once said to me, that a real reefer would care about the impact to the local landfill in relation to discarding cheap equipment.
My thought is this. A real reef lover, someone that truly loved fish and corals and that comes with it, would leave these things in the ocean.
Are we not somewhat selfish in our pursuit? How many fish die for each one we keep? I mean from capture to us having a fish 6 months later, how many never made it? How many corals die during harvest, transport, poor handling before we get the "hang of it"? How many reefs are blown with cyanide to provide us a single fish?
What about resources to manufacture the systems we use? The salt we mix? The water we waste?
Sure, we all take steps to minimize all this, but still. Isn't there some impact, and really, no return for the environment?

Just food for thought..

+1

Aquarium trade is not the main reason why we lost 10% of the living reef. As long as we continue to do informed and ethical reef keeping practices we should be able to minimize the environmental impact of this hobby.

There are lots of things that we can do to contribute in the conservation of the living reef in our own little ways. A simple information campaign through social media, forums, website, internet etc. will help in the information dissemination on how we can have a sustainable reef. We don't even have to go to the Tropics do something about it.

I have learned a lot from this hobby, I was once ignorant on the environmental damage that we are causing to the living reef. In return I'm appealing and reaching to my roots, support conservation efforts in my home town.

my 2 cents.

Totally agree. Didn't realize how ignorant I was about reefs (and esp corals) until I got into the hobby. Now am far more aware and interested in preserving the planet's reefs.

Probably could say the same for the Vancouver Aquarium. I think they have made people much more aware of marine mammals (and other sea creatures) which has ignited more interest and effort in protecting our oceans.

I think environmental impact, overfishing,pollution, tourists breaking things off the reef for a souvenir and introduced species ( such as the lionfish and the crown of thorns starfish ) are probably far greater threats than our hobby will ever be.

I think most hobbyists are probably more aware of the reefs predicament than anyone else out there.

We take 100 percent, give back zero.. Net, very negative affect.

This sums up my thoughts pretty well. There is no doubt that the aquarium trade has a negative impact on our environment (reefs) but it's a probably a very small percentage of hectares destroyed in other ways. That video posted earlier about dragging nets through reefs to collect giant clams was gross. Also that video about the South China Sea off Palawan dredging reefs to reclaim land ugh... Being a hobbiest now has opened my eyes to how sensitive these creatures are that we put into our tanks, I'm also amazed at times how resilient they can be. I made a choice last year to no longer buy wild caught fish or wild corals, not sure if one person has much of an effect but I feel better about it

Global warming will progressively have more of an impact as every year goes by

These videos don't exactly relate to the title of this thread but there's a couple things we can do differently to have a positive, or not so negative impact on reefs.

Super corals...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DtCDquEYzPE

Reef safe sunscreen
http://www.padi.com/blog/2013/06/27/...-scuba-diving/