[Dearth]

I understand where you are coming from and I agree with you however one thing almost all these programs never tell you about is the good and the bad the aquarium trade has had on the oceans and sustainability.

The good is as more people get involved in the aquarium trade they learn and become more aware and for the most part try to shop accordingly using ORA raised where they can and take from plentiful fish and coral stocks when ORA isn’t available. Many countries have now put moritoriums on harvesting for the aquarium trade and are looking at sustainable practises and are even participating in replenishing coral and fish stocks in threatened areas.

The bad is that there is a huge demand for rare and high demand fish and there are many Aquarists and LFS that don’t care where the fish come from and are willing to pay any price for them and there are plenty of harvesters that will break the laws to get said coral or fish by any means nessecary and people have been killed over it. The other thing not talked about is while fish in one area have been depleted these same fish have become an invasive species in another killing off or pushing out the local fauna because of the aquarium trade.

Clownfish, several species of wrasse, several goby species and a few other species have all been depleted in their traditional areas but have become a problem in other areas as they are now an invasive species with few or no predators.

There are always several sides to a story