Marine Ocean Trade Negative Effect

For decades, the aquarium trade has been delivering millions of freshwater and saltwater fish to households and aquariums all over the world. Although it is relatively simple to buy a few fish at the pet store, most people are not questioning where their new pets originate from and what kind of process their fish, if they are not bred in the United States, must endure before they are bought by the local pet store or a wholesale shop. This ignorance has allowed the marine aquarium trade to monopolize the fish trade, whether they are freshwater or saltwater fish, with little to no regulations and no centralized database to determine how many fish are gathered to fill the demands of customers around the world (Rhyne, et. al 2012, Lee, Nowak, …show more content…
al 2012). On the other hand, the marine aquarium trade is highly mobile, which allows the wholesale fisheries to move to another country’s .line when the current .line has overfished and damaged the ecosystem surrounding the coral reef; this type of business gives no incentives to hold a sustainable workforce and company, therefore, it only helps communities for a set amount of time (For the Fishes …show more content…
These types of harvesting techniques and handling techniques which cause high post-harvesting mortality rates include, but are not limited to: using cyanide or other harmful chemicals which can cause illness, collecting juvenile fish that have a low rate of being able to survive in a tank environment, poor handling in the fisheries, and inferior water quality (For the Fishes n.d., Schmidt, Kunzmann 2005). However, every fish that dies, whether they be rare or a common breed, must be re-harvested in order to fill the quota, which places extra stress on these environments and can make overfishing more of a reality than a