i work in thailand most summers and we have a very nice tank in the office. i went to the supplier one day and had a good ole' b***h out. the guy was putting the completely wrong fish and corals in the tank, and things were suffering. the next day the tank had fewer, and better suited inhabitants. it's a rougly 30-40 gallon tank, and this idiot had about 5 clownfish, a mandarin, a koran angel, and a bunch of other fish. i walked in after not being in the office for a year and freaked out.
then i went down to the big fish (livestock) market with our office manager. she LOVES marine fish and has a tank of her own. we went into one store and she literally got chased out. apparently most fish sellers in the market think she works for the Wildlife department, as she always goes in and bitches people out, and one time the wildlife officers came in and shut a place down a few hours after she left (she hadnt called), but she was angry because she saw some extremely rare corals and fish jammed into a tank.
honestly though...things are just done differently out there. many people are just struggling to survive, and view the ocean as an easy thing to rape and pillage.
living in north america, many of us dont realize how hard it is to make a living in some of these countries. obviously i dont agree with their methods, and i absolutely hate it, but at the same time they are just trying to live. unfortunately it's unavoidable, as they will always need to eat, and the ocean will always be in their backyard.
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