Environmental Impact of our Hobby.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Myka

Without the hobby there probably wouldn't be so many scientists working on captive breeding projects because they'd be so far behind in husbandry knowledge and equipment.

That's all I got.

Without the hobby demand, there would be no need for captive breeding..

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

Without the hobby demand, there would be no need for captive breeding..

Um, no. They are researching captive breeding for the end result of being able to re-establish wild populations. Collection for aquariums isn't nearly the only reason they would want to captive breed fish. I'm not just talking about aquarium fish.

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by jorjef

In my eyes it is black and white...

Originally Posted by Aquattro

And I can't really come to any different conclusion.

Well, that explains it... Kind of hard to explain colours to people that only see black and white...

[Dearth]

Actually a few of us local reefers were talking about harvesting methods used to get live rock. One of the guys used to live in Indonesia and the locals where he lived at the time would walk out into the ocean grab, drag and lift the rocks then bring them to shore and use sledge hammers, drills, jack hammers and even explosives to break up big chunks of rock to sell to buyers as for them it was and still is an income for them. This alone is a huge negative impact on the ocean.

They do destroy huge chunks of the ocean floor to supply demand however practises are changing and many areas he said are going to sustainable methods and more and now more Salt water hobbyists are using existing rock from professional and home aquariums making the rocks harvested from the ocean less and less viable.

Also making natural rocks less viable even more is the creation of rocks tailored to your needs it is very expensive but more and more people are liking the idea of tailor made rocks over natural that is a positive impact on the ocean for sure

[rsisvixen]

I think we actually help the reef more than hinder.

Yes we take stuff out so most people would see that as a negative, but if it wasn't for hobbyists the reefs would be even worse off.

Without us, there wouldn't be as much research done or people that care about what happens in the reefs, there would be no attempt to understand captive breeding, propagation and reef rehabilitation.
There are now wild reef preserves to try and conserve habitat, would anyone ever have even cared if this hobby didn't exist? Its under the ocean, out of sight out of mind as the saying goes.
How many marine biologists/scientists would not be here today if there had been no saltwater hobby?