Disease

[dmentnich]

While I do support the idea of aqua cultured corals and captive bred fish etc... I was wondering if these may not present problems on their own.

I recall watching a program about a year ago on the salmon farms on the West coast of Canada and was surprised to learn that many scientists consider these farms to be doing more damage that catching the wild fish.

There were a number of problems cited including disease going from the fish farms to the wild populations, the captive fish escaping as well as the amount of waste in a small area (if I recall correctly it said that the bottom 2 or three feet were now fish crap where it used to have biological diversity it now was now effectively "dead.") Many of the fish were brought in from the Atlantic coast and were more or less different from the native fish in that they grew faster and out competed them when they escaped. The government had originally said that even if they escaped they would not breed and were proven wrong as a larger percentage each year are showing signs of genetic contamination.

While this is not being critical of the "clam farms" or coral farms whose practices I know very little about, I was just wondering if there are any known risks in aqua culturing animals where they may do harm to the wild reef?

 

[MaryHM]

There's a farm down in Central America that is trying to grow South Pacific corals- they've been catching a lot of flak because of the possibility that non-native species will be introduced. The only area where aquaculturing animals for the hobby within the US would be a problem is FL and HI. There are already non-native species thriving in FL, but I don't think that is a direct result of aquaculture facilities. HI doesn't allow any coral importation for that very reason. This is why I think the best solution for aquaculture is for it to be done on site in the South Pacific. There is no danger of introducing non-native species, and it gives the natives an alternative living.

 

[Mike King]

It isn't the introduction of foreign corals that is the biggest problem in farming corals outside of their natural occurring boundaries. It's the possibility of introducing a coral disease that the native coral populations have no resistance to. There are many cases in aquaculture where this has happened. In the 1950s the east coast oyster fisheries were just about wiped out when a new species of oyster was introduced to the east coast. It wasn't the oyster that caused the wipe out rather a bacterial bug that arrived with the new oyster.
As of right now there are very few laws concerning the mariculture of organisms outside of their natural boundaries. Hawaii has a good safe guard they just don't let them in.
Fail safe methods can be used in aquaculture but as long as their not required they will not be used because of added cost.
The best and safest option is In-situ mariculture
(the mariculture of organisms within their naturally occurring boundaries).
I'm currently using In-situ coral mariculture
world wide to restore damaged reefs,These coral farms are partly funded by selling coral frags
to the Marine ornamental industry. So by buying a coral from one of these coral farms not only provides sustainable reef resource use but the recovery of damaged reefs too.



See the hobby can benefit reefs too