A Systematic Review of the Ornamental Fish Trade with Emphasis on Coral Reef Fishes-An Impossible Task

The multi-billion dollar trade in ornamental fishes has rarely been reliably monitored. Almost all coral reef fishes are wild-caught, and few scientific analyses have attempted to elicit exact quantities and identify species involved. The consequences of the removal of millions of these fishes are p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Animals (Basel) 2020-11, Vol.10 (11), p.2014
Main Authors: Biondo, Monica V, Burki, Rainer P
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aquariums
Commerce
coral reef fishes
Coral reefs
Documents
Evaluation
Expert systems
Exports
Fish
Fishing
freshwater ornamental fishes
International trade
Invertebrates
Marine fish
marine ornamental fish trade
Monitoring
Ornamental fish
Ornamental fish trade
Review
Reviews
Scientific papers
Species diversity
Supply chains
Systematic review
Tariffs
Trade
Trade Control and Expert System (TRACES)
trade monitoring
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Summary:The multi-billion dollar trade in ornamental fishes has rarely been reliably monitored. Almost all coral reef fishes are wild-caught, and few scientific analyses have attempted to elicit exact quantities and identify species involved. The consequences of the removal of millions of these fishes are poorly understood. This article collates and examines available information, including scientific studies and formal publications, in order to create a more accurate picture of this commerce. We demonstrate that it is almost impossible to analyse the trade in marine ornamental fishes due to a lack of data, and that available data for marine species is frequently combined with that for freshwater species. Figures range from 15 to 30 million coral reef fishes being traded annually, but could be as high as 150 million specimens. The global value of this trade was only estimated for 1976 and 1999 between USD 28-40 million. This review highlights the urgent need to introduce a specific harmonised system tariff code and for a global monitoring system, such as the Trade Control and Expert System already in use in Europe, in order to gather accurate and timely information on the number and species of marine ornamental fishes in commerce, where specimens originated, and whether they were wild-caught or captive-bred.
ISSN:2076-2615
2076-2615
DOI:10.3390/ani10112014