On Mon, 30 Jun 2003 13:11:01 +0100, Skunky
wrote:

I know that for some areas of the world, their only income is from
catching fish for the trade, but at what price, some fish have already
seen dramatic drops in numbers, one in particular I'm led to believe is
the Zebra plec, yet I still see them for sale, why?

Actually, for some wild caught freshwater fish, having them caught for
the aquarium industry might be the only thing saving them. I don't
recall which species she was talking about, but Karen Randall
mentioned areas in South America where fish are caught and sold. In
those areas where they banned fishing (to protect the fish), suddenly
that land wasn't making any money, so the forests were cleared for
farming and other uses, which destroyed the habitat and killed off the
fish.

tropical fish doomed! I know there are quite a few species of fresh
water fish struggling to maintain numbers due mainly through habitat
loss and pollution here in the U.K

EXACTLY. In poor countries, where most of the wild-caught fish come
from, if they don't make money by catching the fish and selling them,
then they will find some other use for the land, often doing much more
damage to the fish populations.

Like most things, people will only sit up and realize, when it's to
late!

Yes, but people also tend to simplify the problem/solution.


Chuck Gadd
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua