Live fish trade
[1] These preferences inevitably affect the biodiversity of marine life making certain fish species rarer to find.
According to University of Washington Professor Patrick Christie, live fish caught for food export earns approximately $6000 a ton.
[citation needed] As is often the case, consumers are willing to pay large amounts of money on rare and fresh fish.
One 500-pound, polka-dot grouper, estimated to be more than a century old, was hacked into fillets by seven kitchen workers in about half an hour, the Economist reports.
[4] Total imports flowing into Hong Kong included 10153 metric tons, of which 30 percent was re-exported to mainland China.
[6] The primary suppliers of wild caught fish are Indonesia (accounting for nearly 50 percent of Hong Kong's imports), Thailand, Malaysia, Australia, and Vietnam.
[6] However, Taiwan and Malaysia are leading the charge towards farmed live fish specializing in an industry that "harvested annually has probably been in the billions [Metric Tons]".
[citation needed] Hong Kong and China are the dominant markets for the live fish, in addition to other cities in the region that have large Chinese populations, including Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
[7] That same year, other Southeast Asian countries have experienced similar drops in stocks of live coral fish for food.
[7] These decreases in catch have been due to the excessive amount of fish caught for exports and the degradation of the coral reefs from such procedures.
[citation needed] The live fish trade is a complex issue that involves many different perspectives, all of which must be considered in trying to approach a solution.
It is the factor most tightly correlated with illegal trade in natural resources throughout Indonesia.”[9] Coral reefs found in the South Pacific are regarded as the "rainforest of the sea" harboring countless fish species large and small.
It is estimated that since the 1960s, more than one million kilograms of cyanide has been squirted into Philippine reefs alone, and since then the practice has spread throughout the South Pacific.
Small-scale native fishermen of the small South Pacific coastal communities are the backbone of the live fish trade, and are forced to resort to the illegal use of sodium cyanide due to demand and high prices offered by the industry.
When ingested, small levels of cyanide accumulate in the system causing weakness of fingers and toes, failure of the thyroid gland and blurred vision.
The use of cyanide makes a stronger argument in that the more coral reef fish captured alive, the more lucrative the catch is for the fisherman.
The Marine Aquarium Council (MAC) works to offer the hobbyist with a product that is certified as environmentally sound and sustainable.
Additionally, the International Marinelife Alliance (IMA), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), and MAC are working with the Hong Kong Chamber of Seafood Merchants to develop standards for the live fish trade.
There are difficulties with fragile grouper seed that can make it more expensive than wild caught larvae, which can affect natural replenishment rates.
From 1998 to 2001 the Indo-Pacific countries involved in aquaculture; China, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand witnessed a 119 percent increase in output.
