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View Full Version : Growing concern for Hawaii's aquarium fish trade...

element
10-10-2005, 01:24 PM
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/10/10/harvesting.nemo.ap/index.html

According to state figures, collectors brought in 557,673 marine creatures during the 2004 fiscal year with a reported value of $1.08 million.

I have never seen these fish collectors in the water. This is terrible! With all of the technology we have we should be raising these fish in labs, not taking them from the reef.
thecrab87
10-11-2005, 11:29 AM
I have. They tend to lay low.

Lot and lots of yellow tangs, dragon wrasses, etc. being pulled off the reef.
jeffcroci
10-16-2005, 11:42 AM
I saw one when I was in Kauai this past august- right in with the crowd at poipu. I swam by and kicked up a big clowd of sand with my longfins, and pretended not to notice, oh sorry bro

jeff
normanhghntr
10-17-2005, 08:48 PM
horrible 2 bucks a piece to decimate those beautiful reef tracts, what a shame, sometimes you just wonder how people can be born with no conscience or heart :(
seahabu
10-21-2005, 07:17 PM
...seen one at work in North Kohala... One guy. He sets up a barrier net, about 100ftx3ft and then uses two sticks to poke into holes and chase fish into the net. Then he just swims along the net and scoops 'em up.

A few years ago, there was another one I saw sneaking in at Oahu's Pupukea MLCD. He strung up a gill net clear across Shark's Cove. It was so blatant, I first thought he had to be some kind of researcher or Fisheries guy. I was about to start slashing off the torpedo leads until I realized the guy might get violent and he might have partners on the beach. I called DLNR but of course, got a recording...
element
10-22-2005, 01:07 PM
A few years ago, there was another one I saw sneaking in at Oahu's Pupukea MLCD.

Geesh, he had to have some big balls to be out at Pupukea. That place is loaded with tourists and scuba tours.
seahabu
10-24-2005, 12:24 PM
Geesh, he had to have some big balls to be out at Pupukea. That place is loaded with tourists and scuba tours.

That's what threw me off and also scared me. Usually, the fed guys have something stenciled on their wetsuits and local researchers tend to come in cluster----s. Not this guy. But he didn't seem to care that I saw him; like he had a right to be there. He was laying a gill net with eyes that sure looked smaller than the legal size 2-3/4in. This was about an hour or so before sunrise on a weekend. The only other thing I could figure was that he was fresh off the boat and had no idea about the laws here.