Vinh2o
Members
Thank You for sharing
dogofwar
CCA Members
Yes - thanks for sharing, Lane!
Unfortunately, ours is a hobby in which there's no shortage of buyers for anything new and rare, even if it has been acquired in a way that deleterious to conservation. Demand drives supply.
The broader question is: Given that populations of geographic variants of rift lake cichlids are almost by definition extremely limited (and thus vulnerable to over-collection)...and that captive breeding and commercial farming rift lake cichlids is nearly always simple to accomplish, does it make sense to severely limit commercial export of fish from the rift lakes?
While it is probably possible to collect some species / variants from the rift lakes in sustainable ways, how do we know that what we're doing is being done without harming the environment, intentionally or unintentionally? Is our understanding of the impact of collecting on geographic variants good enough that we know that commercially collecting 100 of a population is OK and 500 is not (or whatever numbers)?
We've heard from experts like Ad Konings and Dave Schumacher that the, "only wild and F1 fish are colorful and free of genetic defects" meme is bunk. Old World and plenty of other farms are able to maintain genetically diverse and quality lines of rift lake fish over literally decades. And so can hobbyists, if they follow responsible practices.
If we really care about these fish and their habitats, shouldn't we be focusing our resources and passion on preserving and conserving the Rift Lakes (and surrounding region) itself and not contributing to the problem?
Matt
Unfortunately, ours is a hobby in which there's no shortage of buyers for anything new and rare, even if it has been acquired in a way that deleterious to conservation. Demand drives supply.
The broader question is: Given that populations of geographic variants of rift lake cichlids are almost by definition extremely limited (and thus vulnerable to over-collection)...and that captive breeding and commercial farming rift lake cichlids is nearly always simple to accomplish, does it make sense to severely limit commercial export of fish from the rift lakes?
While it is probably possible to collect some species / variants from the rift lakes in sustainable ways, how do we know that what we're doing is being done without harming the environment, intentionally or unintentionally? Is our understanding of the impact of collecting on geographic variants good enough that we know that commercially collecting 100 of a population is OK and 500 is not (or whatever numbers)?
We've heard from experts like Ad Konings and Dave Schumacher that the, "only wild and F1 fish are colorful and free of genetic defects" meme is bunk. Old World and plenty of other farms are able to maintain genetically diverse and quality lines of rift lake fish over literally decades. And so can hobbyists, if they follow responsible practices.
If we really care about these fish and their habitats, shouldn't we be focusing our resources and passion on preserving and conserving the Rift Lakes (and surrounding region) itself and not contributing to the problem?
Matt
dogofwar
CCA Members
Thanks Steve - we had a great discussion with Ad Konings himself about this at our first AquaMania event... and had Colin Apse, who leads The Nature Conservancy's Lake Tanganyika program present a couple of years ago.
Any other perspectives on this topic?
Matt
Any other perspectives on this topic?
Matt
