John C. WalchPresented at: The Western Marine Conference 1997
Thank Rick Martin, Mikki, and the rest of the organizers of WMC 97 for the invitation to participate in this exciting conference.1997 is "The International Year of the Reef" and the theme of this conference.
Maintaining an enclosed marine ecosystem is an excellent way of sharing the secrets of life on a coral reef. I have noticed that children in contact with marine life have a heightened concern for the marine environment. While not everyone has the means to travel to see coral reefs first hand, exposure to reef aquaria in the classroom or in private homes may increase future generations sensitivity for the protection of the worlds reefs.
The present status of the marine aquarium keeping hobby still relies on the majority of the ornamental marine organisms being collected from the tropical oceans. Whether or not WE believe that this industry in anyway contributes to the degradation of the coral reef, our hobby appears to many as a destructive enemy of the reef.
However, I would like to congratulate the hobby on its strong interest and genuine concern in moving towards some degree of self-sustain ability. A diligent effort by aquarists to purchase cultured marine-life, self imposed "Eco- Labeling", organizations like AMDA, and the increasing attendance to conferences like this one, all indicate an alternative ecological movement. It is imperative we keep the momentum moving forward by sharing information and technological advancements in the field of Ornamental Mariculture to help insure the longevity of the hobby.
The concern for the environment and the educational values and pleasure derived from maintaining a captive marine ecosystem has always been a complex decision for the marine aquarist. With the availability of cultured marine-life this in no longer the case.
While the term "MARICULTURE" may be relatively new to some aquarist the concept certainly is not. Terms like, tank raised, captive breed, cultured, propagated, maquaculture, etc., maybe more commonly used. Mariculture is the correct word for the saltwater version of freshwater Aquaculture. Ornamental mariculture is more specifically the controlled culturing and propagation of a wide variety of ornamental marine plants, fish, and invertebrates as opposed to food aquaculture or food mariculture.
"1997 The International Year of the Reef", has generated national interest in ornamental mariculture. I was recently in Palau as a member of the US Dept. of State advisory counsel to the Palau government.
Our mission was to offer assistance on the design, goals, and objectives of the Palau International Coral Reef Research & Educational Center that will soon be constructed thanks in part to a grant from the Japanese government. Ornamental mariculture is just one way they hope to make the center financially self-sustaining.
As part of my duties with the Aquatic WildLife Co., I also spent 3 weeks last year in the Solomon Islands educating the local collectors on some management concepts to helps sustain their sites and demonstrated to them how to culture some SPS corals.
The aquarist own ability to share with others' invertebrates and reef fishes that they have cultured in their aquaria is becoming a bench mark of successful marine aquarium keeping.
The availability and diversity of cultured marine life in the trade today, compared to just a few years ago is astonishing! Maricultured live rock, propagated hard and soft corals, clams and the greatly expanded number of fish species beyond the once limited selection of anemone fish all helps reduce one of the pressures effecting the already stressed coral reefs of the worlds weather we feel we are impacting them or not.
Aquarist are also gaining an appreciation of cultured marine-life beyond the environmentally issues. Having been raised in an aquarium environment cultured marine-life are at home in one. Maricultured fish are pre-conditioned to the artificial diets normally offered by aquarist. They also experience much less stress in captivity than ones collected off the reefs, and as we know lower stress equates to less disease problem and an increase in their longevity in captive systems.
Aquarist also report a much higher successes with propagated corals then with ocean harvested ones. The theory being the propagated coral are better accustomed to the lighting conditions and flow rates provided by aquarist and grow or adapt "morph" according to the conditions.
Over the past several years our approach and attitude toward marine aquarium keeping has changed dramatically. While in the past we relied mainly on bacteria for filtration and focused our attention on the fish in the aquarium using bleached coral skeletons decoration. Now we more closely model a more natural reef ecosystem with reproducing live corals, healthy fish and unique invertebrates.
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