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| นิตยสาร สารคดี: ฉบับที่ ๒๒๔ เดือนตุลาคม ๒๕๔๖ | ISSN 0857-1538 | |||
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| Story: Arthit Prasartkul Photos: Bansit Bunyaratavej, Boonkit Suthiyananon |
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Colorful clownfish dance playfully among vibrant tentacles of a sea anemone in a fish tank. The sight captures the wonder of the undersea world - and the attention of all who watch! A saltwater aquarium with clownfish is thus an item of pride that brings the splendor of the marine environment into the home. But few people realize that for every clownfish that makes it to a home aquarium, a dozen other clownfish and marine animals sacrifice their lives along the way. While harvest of coral is prohibited under Thai law, marine animals are not protected. Due to difficulty and high costs of breeding marine wildlife in captivity, most aquarium fish are captured from the sea in southern Thailand. Fortunately the country prohibits export of saltwater fish smaller than 20 centimeters, otherwise fancy fish in the Thai seas would have ended up in aquaria, not just in Thailand but also around the world. |
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Rising domestic demand for pretty clownfish and lack of regulation on harvest methods have led, in the past, to the use of toxic cyanide by some collectors to catch fish, resulting in indiscriminate poisoning of marine organisms. Even catching clownfish with a net and putting the catch in small plastic bags-the typical practice now-causes significant damage to reefs and injuries to fish. Because of high mortality only 1 in 10 fish survive long enough to end up in aquaria. Saltwater fish lovers thus had to choose between wreaking the marine ecology or not having an aquarium at all. Recently, however, a nice compromise is possible with the success of commercial breeding of clownfish in captivity by the Coastal Marine Animal Breeding Center of Krabi Province. |
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Using a cheap and simple sand-bed filtration technique, the center is able to breed all 7 species of anemonefish in Thailand at a rate of 1,000 fish per week and sell them for a competitive price of around 20 Baht each. As long as people cannot rid themselves of their desires to have marine aquaria, captive breeding offers a potentially sustainable alternative and can reduce environmental impacts of aquarium trade in the future. However, the current level of output by the Krabi center is only a small fraction of the trade volume in the country. So if you consider buying clownfish or other fancy marine life, be mindful that almost 100% of clownfish in Thailand are captured from the wild. |