UN urges balance between economy and conservation in tropical fish trade

With over 20 million tropical fish being harvested each year in a trade worth up to $330 million to supply the booming aquarium market in Europe and the United States, the United Nations environmental agency today called for a proper balance between preserving valuable ecosystems and helping local people battle poverty.

“Collecting tropical fish brings pleasure to millions. It also fuels an important, and mostly legitimate, industry,” the Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), Klaus Toepfer, said in launching “From Ocean to Aquarium: The Global Trade in Marine Ornamentals,” the most comprehensive global survey ever undertaken on the issue.

“The global trade in marine species on the one hand poses a significant risk to valuable ecosystems like coral reefs, but on the other has great potential as a source of desperately needed income for local fishing communities,” he added.

“As a result it represents another important weapon in the war against poverty and in helping to meet not only the United Nations Millennium Development Goals but also the World Summit on Sustainable Development’s Plan of Implementation,” he said, referring to the goals set by the Millennium Summit of 2000 to halve many of the world’s ills, including poverty, by 2015.

The annual harvest of over 20 million includes 1,471 species ranging from the sapphire devil to the copperhead butterflyfish. A further nine to 10 million animals, including molluscs, shrimps and anemones and involving some 500 species, are also being traded to supply tanks in homes, public aquaria and dentists’ surgeries.

Moreover, up to 12 million stony corals are being harvested, transported and sold annually, according to the report, released by UNEP’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), which puts the value of aquarium creatures in trade at between $200 million to $330 million annually.

Southeast Asia is shown to be the main source of the trade, but species are increasingly being taken from several island nations in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Most of the demand comes from the United States, Europe and to a lesser extend Japan.