[Killietalk] killifish importation and red tape---sounding off...

["Bruce J. Turner, Dept. Biology, VPISU, Blacksburg, VA 24061" <fishgen at vt_edu>]

The stuff I have been reading in the last few days about killfish importation 
and the red 
tape that crops up is aggravating to say the least. I wonder if commercial 
importers 
have to go through nearly this amount of garbage? In some respects, the 
situation 
reminds me of the problems one encounters in attempting to obtain collecting 
permits in 
countries like Brazil (forgive me, Brazilian colleagues, but I will be bitter 
about this until 
I die)---the large commerical interests who participate in/facilitate/catalyze 
the 
destruction of entire ecosystems have no hasles, for they are "connected" in 
the most 
basic way, while the biologists and aquarium hobbyists encounter endless red 
tape...

I think that the only potentially effective way to deal with these import 
problems is at the 
national level. We must find/cultivate political allies who can speak to the 
power people 
and get the regulations modified. To be sure, the federal government does have 
a 
legitimate role in preventing the importation of endangered species, for, 
presumably, 
this just might impose some constraint on collecting them in the wild. But how 
does the 
government determine if a shipment contains any of these? There is no body of 
government experts who could do this with killifish. I daresay that I know of 
none of my 
professional colleagues who could determine, by inspection, especially at an 
airport, if a 
particular bag/box of fish contained the common Fundulopanchax gardneri Akure 
or the 
rare Fundulopanchax gardneri Lafia, etc. For the federal government to claim 
otherwise 
is frankly silly. Killifish specialists, both hobbyist and professionals, are 
the only credible 
"experts" in this area. And, of course, they are the ones who want to do the 
importing of 
fishes that is in question in the first place.

We are left with an almost anarchistic thought: the only group that can 
credibly monitor 
our import activities to ensure that truly endangered species are not imported 
is 
ourselves... In fact, I would carry this one step further: I would have 
trouble accepting 
the judgement/opinions of any monitoring system that does not include 
consultation with 
some people who are/were AKA members or closely associated with them. This is, 
ultimately, an argument for including our organization in the import 
monitoring business. 
If we could do that, we could stop the nonsense interference and concentrate 
on the few 
really abusinve situations (and, while rare, these do occur...)..

I know that this sounds impractical, but the federal government does regularly 
consult 
with experts on other groups of organisms, and organizations like the Audobon 
Society 
keep such experts on their staffs to advise the government on 
conservation-related 
issues. We could do this too.

If the above seems like a good idea, I believe that a good place to start is 
to have a 
code of ethics or behavior regarding the importation of killifishes, and to 
widely publicize 
that code in the hobbyist press and with online sources. It may seem strange, 
but, as I 
have learned in my pofessional consulting activities (I have done a lot of 
forensic DNA 
consulting, generally interpreting evidence fo public defenders), the step in 
acquiring 
credibility is to assert it.



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