Aquarium Fish, Hold the Cyanide 
By Stephenie Livingston ID Source: hakaimagazine 8/13/2020

Small like its name, the rural village of Les sits between rugged volcanic mountains and the sea on the northern coast of Bali, Indonesia. Winding two-lane roads flanked by modest housing and open-air markets are busy with motorbikes and rusty pickup trucks. But the ocean is calm. Slipping a worn dive mask over his eyes, Made Partiana freedives beneath the surface with fishing nets in hand. Les fishers like Partiana stay busy. Their village is one of the island’s top suppliers for a multimillion-dollar industry: the saltwater aquarium fish trade.
 

Before picking up nets 20 years ago, Partiana and other fishers in Les caught aquarium fish with the same chemical that movie spies put in suicide capsules: cyanide. Fishers mix it with a solution in a spray bottle and use it to blanket the reef in poison. The neurotoxin stuns fish, rendering them a lethargic, easy catch for several minutes. It’s just long enough to collect shy and highly sought-after fish like the blue tang, the inspiration behind Finding Nemo’s Dory.

The easy harvesting that cyanide provides comes at a deadly price. As much as 90 percent of fish caught with cyanide die before they reach a retailer. And the poison can severely damage coral reefs by destroying coral polyps and other organisms essential to reef health. When fishers are properly trained to use nets correctly so that they do not break or dislodge coral, net catching is demonstrably less harmful to the reef and its inhabitants, says Shannon Switzer Swanson, a marine social ecologist and PhD candidate at Stanford University in California, who works with fishing communities in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands.

 
Continue...

News Id SourceStampcountry
3626Norwegian fish farms fight sea lice with 'Star Wars'dw2016-02-05NO
3627Oregon biologists won't condone end to catch-and-release fishing for sturgeon in lower Columbia Riveroregonlive2016-01-09US
3628Britain's finest chefs hunt for Norway's most prized fish in icy Arctic watersindependent2016-01-31UK
3629Print an Army of Giant, Articulated Fish From This 3-D Databasewired2016-01-28US
3630The Parrot: What other celebrity fish are in the giant carp's league?independent2016-01-27UK
3631Tui chub alert: Why one single fish has wildlife experts in Oregon scramblingcsmonitor2016-01-27US
3632This enormous catch broke an ice fishing record in Laplandthelocal2016-01-25SE
3633Для чего в России создают робота-тунца?aif2021-07-06RU
3634Emperor Emeritus Akihito discovers 2 new types of goby fishasahi2021-06-25JP
3635Lice, infectious disease and taking reef fish: The impact of salmon farms on marine biodiversitythejournal2021-06-26UK
3636Girl, 15, lands big Chinook: ‘If you are a fish, you should definitely fear her.’chicago.suntimes2021-06-22US
3637To Save Its Salmon, California Calls In the Fish MatchmakerThe New York Times2016-01-15US
3638Scientists sound alarm over hydropower’s impacts on tropical fish biodiversitymongabay2016-01-12CA
3639Strange 6ft deep-sea fish washes up in Alaska Earth Touch News2016-01-11US
3640Asian carp could become most common fish in Lake Erie, study findskitchener.ctvnews2016-01-04CA
3641How satellite technology is helping to fight illegal fishingtheguardian2016-01-04UK
3642Family says parasites were in fish bought at California Costcofox5sandiego2015-12-31US
3643Farage fury at EU ban on anglers keeping fishexpress2015-12-29UK
3644Fish rage: Locals block wharf after fishermen filmed with 'thousands' of pink maomao in bins in Tairuanzherald2021-06-25NZ
3645Spanish mackerel stocks under threat from overfishing, government saysABC Rural2021-06-13SP
3646NSW man gets $11k penalty for making more than $200k selling protected fishABC Broken Hill2021-06-16AU
3647New fish scale determines weight based on tail sizedailyamerican2015-12-29US
3648These Fish Went From Saltwater To Freshwater In Just Fifty Yearsgizmodo2015-12-18US
3649Record fish haul confirms recovery of North Sea stocks, say industry figuresheraldscotland2015-12-18UK
3650Salmon lovers rejoice, you may be allowed to ‘suspiciously handle’ the fish soonmetro2015-12-15UK

215 216 217 145 of [218 - pages.]