The better aquarium: lights, coral - no cyanide

Swimming in Joe Scavo's basement aquarium are seven brightly colored fish that once swam in the Pacific but now glide past a carefully tended mini-reef. They feed on shrimp and scallops. High-intensity lights mimic the tropical sun.

Nothing is too good for his fish - except, perhaps, how they were caught.

Mr. Scavo and a growing number of hobbyists worry that some of the fish they buy - for $25 to $100 apiece - may have been captured using knockout poisons that damage or destroy ocean reefs. Now, they're getting some help from an unusual alliance. Industry and environmental groups are pressing ahead with a system to ensure that wild ornamental fish are caught and marketed in a sustainable way.

"We're trying to show that, using a responsible approach, you can promote a healthy reef and fish populations," says Paul Holthus, executive director of the Marine Aquarium Council (MAC), an alliance of industry and environmental groups, based in Honolulu, that aims to solve the problem at its origin.

In the early 1980s, reports revealed fishermen in the South Pacific switching from nets to cyanide to capture many marine fish destined for home aquariums in the United States and around the world. By squirting the poison into coral formations, divers stunned the ornamental fish, making them easy to catch. But the cyanide also damaged and killed the coral, sickened and killed other fish, and often harmed the divers, too.

Enthusiasts like Scavo had no way of knowing how the South Pacific species they bought had been captured. In the United States, legislation to ban imported marine fish surfaced briefly in Congress a few years ago. But hobbyists and the industry say the best way to save the reefs is to encourage good fishing practices in the region.

So in 2001, industry and environmental groups including the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council, World Wildlife Fund, and Nature Conservancy, launched MAC. It educates villagers in the South Pacific about the danger of cyanide use and reeducates them in net-fishing techniques. To win MAC certification, fishing companies and communities have to use best-practices reef management.

"In many cases, they weren't doing destructive fishing, but they didn't have adequate storage facilities or aerators in their boats," says Marshall Meyers, executive vice president of the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council, the Washington lobby group that supports MAC certification. "So we had to show them how to do that."

Aerators and storage tanks ensure that the fish survive once they're caught. Importers have a host of requirements. So do retailers, whose stores must track and report fish mortality and are subject to inspections. The system helps consumers know which fish have been harvested and transported in sustainable ways.

Page: 1 | 2