{"id":2370,"date":"2019-09-16T07:08:17","date_gmt":"2019-09-16T07:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.tetra.net\/en\/en\/?p=2370"},"modified":"2019-09-16T07:08:19","modified_gmt":"2019-09-16T07:08:19","slug":"responsible-sourcing-of-fish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.tetra.net\/en-en\/responsible-sourcing-of-fish\/","title":{"rendered":"Responsible sourcing of fish"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>As fishkeepers in the UK we have a legal and ethical\nresponsibility for our fish. The legislation that we must be aware of primarily\nis the Animal Welfare Act of 2006, which states that we must ensure that our\nfishes have a freedom from hunger, discomfort, pain and injury or disease, fear\nand distress, and the ability to express normal behaviours. Clearly there are\nissues with the application of this statute to ornamental fishes, but most\nright-minded fishkeepers would have a gut-feeling for fish welfare and the\nabove 5 freedoms could simply be extrapolated to ornamental fish. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So if fish welfare is a prime concern in our own fishkeeping\npractice, is this the case back up the supply chain? Are the retailers,\nwholesalers, breeders etc. similarly motivated? What about other ethical\nconcerns, is there an impact on the native environment of tropical plants,\ninverts and fishes? Are we harming or enhancing local communities. An\nenlightened fishkeeper can do their best for their own practice but may also\ndesire ethically sourced livestock from responsible suppliers. What should they\nlook out for?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The starting point here would be the trade association for\nthe ornamental fish industry in the UK \u2013 the Ornamental Aquatic Trade\nAssociation (OATA). There is a global trade body also, Ornamental Fish International\nor OFI) and many other countries have their own national associations. In the\nUK roughly half of the industry of retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers etc\nare members of OATA. Generally those that are members are proud to announce the\nfact as membership requires adherence to codes of practice regarding fish\nwelfare and responsible sourcing. Also, staff of OATA members are quite likely\nto be trained in fish biology, fish health and diseases and water chemistry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Buying fish from a retailer with an OATA membership is a\ngreat step towards responsible sourcing, but ask questions of your retailer \u2013\nare their suppliers OATA members?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Around 90% of the fishes sold for tropical freshwater aquaria are captive-bred, it is really a specialist minority such as certain Lake Malawi or Tangayikan cichlids that are sometimes wild-caught for a breeders or advanced hobbyists. Occasionally other wild-caught odd-ball fishes may turn up, but for the typical home aquarium keeper their \u2018bread and butter\u2019 tropical freshwater fishes will be raised by breeders in the Far East and more recently in some eastern European countries. OATA believe that all UK cold-water fishes, (goldfish, Orfe, Rudd, Koi etc) are sourced from the Far East, Israel and the USA, and that UK-based production of these fish contributes very little. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"869\" height=\"489\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.tetra.net\/en\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Clownfish-Fotolia_4853323_X_869x489.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2112\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.tetra.net\/en-en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Clownfish-Fotolia_4853323_X_869x489.jpg 869w, https:\/\/blog.tetra.net\/en-en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Clownfish-Fotolia_4853323_X_869x489-711x400.jpg 711w, https:\/\/blog.tetra.net\/en-en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Clownfish-Fotolia_4853323_X_869x489-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 869px) 100vw, 869px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The marine end of the hobby sees a very different situation;\nthe vast majority of the 2500 marine species that are traded for keeping in\naquaria are wild caught. Some marine fishes such as clownfish (<em>Amphiprion <\/em>sp.) are captive bred and\nhistorically some seahorses and ornamental marine shrimp have all been captive\nbred for a global trade. However due to the demand of marine fish being so low\nand their difficulty of culture, captive breeding is simply not economically\nviable in most cases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hence these fishes must be taken from the reef. When fished\nusing non-destructive methods, from sustainably managed fisheries the trade in\nmarine fishes can enhance a reef and give employment to communities. Ornamental\nfishes are a very high value, low volume commodity. Ethical and scientific\nmanagement of the supply chain is vital and is being pursued and lobbied for by\norganisations such as OATA and OFI. If the trade in ornamental fish is lost\nother more damaging methods of reef exploitation may be sought by communities\ndeprived of this precious and lucrative income. Intolerance of the use of\ndestructive methods of fish capture such as cyanide or dynamite fishing should\nfeedback to fishers who can be educated in sustainable, non-destructive methods\nof fishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ethical trading with developing communities is not restricted to marine fishes however. In Amazonas, Brazil, as part of <em>Project Piaba<\/em>, local fishers (who are often women and children), catch quotas of Cardinal Tetra and other local ichtyofauna ]\u00a0under the guidance of fisheries ecologists for the global trade. This fair trade with local communities also protects the rainforests as these communities no longer rely on slash-and-burn agriculture. Project Piaba\u2019s motto is \u2018<em>buy a fish: save a tree<\/em>\u2019. Similar projects are underway in India and on the shores of Lake Malawi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The conscientious, ethical and responsible fish keeper\nshould simply question their supplier. Are these fish wild caught or captive\nbred, where have they come from, if wild caught, how where they caught. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As fishkeepers in the UK we have a legal and ethical responsibility for our fish. The legislation that we must be aware of primarily is the Animal Welfare Act of 2006, which states that we must ensure that our fishes have a freedom from hunger, discomfort, pain and injury or disease, fear and distress, and [&#8230;]\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2371,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[163],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fish"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Responsible sourcing of fish | Tetra Fishkeeper Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.tetra.net\/en-en\/responsible-sourcing-of-fish\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Responsible sourcing of fish | Tetra Fishkeeper Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As fishkeepers in the UK we have a legal and ethical responsibility for our fish. The legislation that we must be aware of primarily is the Animal Welfare Act of 2006, which states that we must ensure that our fishes have a freedom from hunger, discomfort, pain and injury or disease, fear and distress, and [...]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.tetra.net\/en-en\/responsible-sourcing-of-fish\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Tetra Fishkeeper Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-09-16T07:08:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-09-16T07:08:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.tetra.net\/en-en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/rainbowfish_72.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1566\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1044\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Pete Cuomo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" 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