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NFC: Fish Harvest Policy



>...I honestly see no conflict with either groups, their methods, or making
>money
>from the reasonably policed capture of wild specimens. It might even advance
>the aquarium hobby a couple of notches, hold down the imports of alien fish,
>and get people interested in cleaning up the places their fish come from.
>"Just my opinion, I could be wrong"...


It seems to me that just as in the tropical fish hobby, it's necessary to
bring in wild stock to maintain good genetics in captive bred fish.  As far
as tropicals go, usually the fish that are sold as wild caught are those
that have not been bred in captivity, are of limited commercial value or
are not commercially cost effective to breed in captivity.  I think if we
are to promote the use of North American fishes as pets, we should also,
strongly promote the use of captive bred fish over wild caught.  If people
desire stock for breeding fish for commerce or for study, then that would
seem a reasonable use of wild fish - as long as the fish in question are
not so rare that harvesting them could damage the wild population and
further endanger it.

Personal collecting would fall under the same category as sport fishing.
Agencies will need to set bag limits for each species to protect against
exploitation.  Geuss there's a lot of work to be done.  I think those who
wish to collect wild fish for sale should be subject to commercial fisher
licensing, and monitoring should be conducted to insure that populations
are not damaged by overfishing.


Mark Binkley
Columbus Ohio USA          <))><
mbinkley at earthling_net