Home > About the Marine Aquarium Trade

 

 

“Sometimes proponents of the reef aquarium trade are criticized by well meaning members of conservation movements for creating the potential to harm wild populations. In some locations, where small reef areas occur in close proximity to major centers of population, such criticisms are likely to be well founded. However, this is not so for major reef regions of the Indo-Pacific where very large areas of reefs are owned by poor countries, most of which participate in destructive fishing practices. In these countries, the well managed harvesting of corals for aquaria should give monetary value to reefs. Like well managed tourist industries, these activities have little or no environmental impacts, and as they represent an eternally renewable source of income, they are likely to be important in the quest for effective management practices that lead to long-term conservation.”

JEN Veron, Corals of the World (2000)