BATASAN ISLAND, Philippines (12 Feb 2003) -- Tito Sitoy takes a breath, dives a couple of meters to a coral reef and spots his prey. He scoops a finger-long maroon clownfish into his net, swims to the surface and puts it into a clear plastic jar. The fish may travel halfway around the globe. It probably will end up in one of the estimated 2 million home aquariums in the United States. Because Sitoy caught the clownfish without cyanide and without damaging the reef, he will earn almost three times as much as he did a few months ago. Sitoy is at one end of what the Marine Aquarium Council, based in Hawaii, says is now a sustainable supply-demand chain. The council, a nongovernmental organization, seeks to help small-scale fishermen make more money, protect fragile and threatened coral reefs, and provide healthier fish for hobbyists. The world's coral reefs could certainly use some effective conservation initiatives. In the Philippines, for example, about 95 percent of the coral reefs are damaged or destroyed. Specialists believe that many of the earth's remaining living coral reefs may be dead in 20 years. There are numerous causes of coral reef destruction. Some are global, such as climate change. But fishermen themselves batter coral reefs by using homemade bombs and cyanide to stun fish and bring them to the surface where they can be collected. Many of the 35 million tropical ornamental fish that are caught in the wild each year are captured by using cyanide. Catching live fish this way is easy. Crush a couple of sodium cyanide tablets that are readily available and inexpensive in Asia. Put the powder into a spray bottle of water, dive around a coral reef, find a fish you fancy, and squirt the toxic liquid into its face. The mixture temporarily stuns the fish, making it easy to catch in a net or even by hand. The poison does not normally kill or harm the fish, but it damages the living coral on the reef. Cyanide fishing began in the 1960s in the Philippines to supply the international aquarium trade. But since the early 1980s, a much bigger business has emerged: supplying live reef fish to restaurants in Hong Kong, Singapore and, increasingly, mainland China. | | Some critics accuse the Marine Aquarium Council of "green washing." They assert that exporters of aquarium fish certified by the council mix "clean" fish with cyanide-caught fish. Such critics call for the use of a standard test to detect traces of cyanide. The council retorts that the test is not scientifically proven. For his part, Sitoy says that he was using cyanide before the council started its certification program in his area, but isn't now. Sitoy is an incongruous figure, wearing a black and white wool ski cap. He swims with fins made of plywood. The foot straps are crafted from old tires. But in his own way, Sitoy is a professional. He knows that his business must be sustainable to be profitable in the long term. Sitoy was moved to tears last October when he and 26 other divers received certification cards from the council. Sitoy stood in line with other fishermen on Batasan Island waiting to give their daily catch to Epi Saavedra, the village-appointed business manager. Saavedra, sitting on a floating holding pen dubbed "Wall Street" by the fishermen, examined Sitoy's catch. "Maroon clown," Saavedra said, while an assistant recorded the catch in a notebook. "Tomato clown," Saavedra called out. "Red angelfish. Cleaner wrasse. Chelmon butterfly. Green mandarin." A year ago, when the fish would probably have been caught with cyanide, the common tomato clown might have earned Sitoy 75 U.S. cents. Today the business manager credits Sitoy's account with $2.50 for the crimson-colored fish. Such a sale price increase means a lot to Sitoy and his family. |
