50/50 show disappointing

SteveZi

SteveZi

Joined
2 Feb 2011
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Location
Cape Agulhas
What a pathetic amateur insert on local fish collection on last night's 50/50.
Totally misleading the general public with misinformation and doing nothing to stop the real poaching of endemic species. Have to say I would not support this local show anymore if this is the type of crap they dish out.
Disappointed :(
 
Not one. They focused on the negative opinions of every Tom, Dick and Harry.
..and had a skype interview with Snorkle Bob from Hawaii...
They just sketched a negative picture of marine aquarists in general, BUT somehow public aquariums were not considered in the same bad light.
 
I watched the show last night. I was also a bit disappointed in how the show was done. Yes many fish do die in captivity collected from our local waters but they made it sould like all fish die, also making it sound like all reefers has no hart or soal. Think ill send 50/50 a link to our forums and then they will see how much love we have for this hobby and the aquatic life we place into these glass cubes. The lady from ushaka said its extremely difficult to even keep a cleaner wrasse alive as they only live of parasites, bull!
 
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They also went on saying for R90 bucks you may take out whatever you want. That includes inverts and corals, well the law states that lps and sps corals are forbidden!
 
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this was my response on their fb page:
What a pathetic amateur insert on local fish collection on last night's 50/50.
Totally misleading the general public with misinformation and doing nothing to stop the real poaching of endemic species. Have to say I would not support this local show anymore if this is the type of crap they dish out.
Disappointed :(
There is nothing wrong with the laws and permits that governs local ornamental fish collection - it clearly states that the user is not allowed to sell or barter with any collected fish on such a permit. The real problem is with the policeing of such laws - this is the problem with conservation in SA as a whole.
By the way, did you know that tropical fish(post larvae fish that drifted down with the warm Agulhas current during spring and early summer) collected on our coast from PE southwards, are actually rescued from sure death when winter cold water sets in? There are amateur aquarists that are a lot better at fish husbandry and conservation, than public aquariums like Ushaka and 2Oceans. The ornamental fish species that are poached and sold on the black market overseas are all endemic species like the Tiger angel (deep water, not found in rock pools), Rhomboides angels and the temperate water Marleyii Butterfly. a Total ban on the collection of these species could be put in place, but sadly this would not deter poachers, only push up the price even more. Currently tiger angels could fetch a price of up to R200 000 and Marleyii butterflies could sell for more than R15000 a piece. Why aren't our DAFF more clued up on this??? The poachers are mostly importers and exporters of ornamental fish, with distribution channels in place. We should all work together to catch these criminals, not shun the law abiding and mostly conservation minded aquarists who collect fish out of sheer passion.
 
Here is the link to the episode if anyone wants to watch it. From around 3m40 to 13m50 or so. Really no research went into it, and using Snorkel Bob as a source is biased to say the least. They should have focused on the illegal black market selling of the fish like kingis, not the actual hobbyists collecting maybe a handful of fish every few months. I have actually tried to contact DAFF before as I have some details of kingi poachers, but never got a response, they don't seem to care.

 
My cleaner is eating anything I put in my tank from frozen to flakes.


Jason said:
I watched the show last night. I was also a bit disappointed in how the show was done. Yes many fish do die in captivity collected from our local waters but they made it sould like all fish die, also making it sound like all reefers has no hart or soal. Think ill send 50/50 a link to our forums and then they will see how much love we have for this hobby and the aquatic life we place into these glass cubes. The lady from ushaka said its extremely difficult to even keep a cleaner wrasse alive as they only live of parasites, bull!
Click to expand...


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r0ckf1re said:
My cleaner is eating anything I put in my tank from frozen to flakes.
Click to expand...

Mine too, I've had it for 2 years now. Some cleaners like Hawaiian cleaners are much more difficult to keep alive than blue streak cleaners though, so with the cleaning function I sort of agree that some cleaners are best left on the reef, they are super easy to catch though, so an easy buck for a collector. Commercial collectors (as well as local hobbyists collecting fish) need to be more educated in what to catch and what to leave, that will already reduce fatalities a lot.
 
hotdog83 said:
Here is the link to the episode if anyone wants to watch it. From around 3m40 to 13m50 or so. Really no research went into it, and using Snorkel Bob as a source is biased to say the least. They should have focused on the illegal black market selling of the fish like kingis, not the actual hobbyists collecting maybe a handful of fish every few months. I have actually tried to contact DAFF before as I have some details of kingi poachers, but never got a response, they don't seem to care.

Click to expand...
Agreed.
 
the interview with the guy(with a vested monatory interest) who takes tourists to a (man made) local rockpool to see the fish, was ironic in more ways than one.
 
Not really fifty-fifty with only showing one side of the story (maybe it should be "95/5").
 
my comment

What an amateur insert. Out of all the rockpool video clips, I saw 2 fish that is suitable for some marine tanks. If you do not have corals.

How easy is it to maintain a marine tank. VERY easy. My cleaner wrasse is over 5 years in my tank. My oldest fish is I got 8 years ago when I started out.

Did Ashmund even read the permit conditions. He makes it sound like we can take any fish, even sharks. Go check, there are fish on the no-take list. And yes, I can take 15 of a species out per day. Also normal line fishermen can catch certain numbers per species per day. I need to keep them alive. Fishermen not. Over a month that comes to 450 fish. How will I keep them. My tank is only that big. And read the conditions. I'm not allowed to sell, barter or even give away any fish I caught.

Focus rather on the illegal poaching of fish, where they are exporting the fish. Selling them. Seeing only dollars as Snorkel Bob puts it.​
 
I think they did read the permit conditions, but chose not to mention it. Along with the permit, there is the regulations brochure that goes into detail about what you can do with your permit. btw you are allowed to collect 10 fish per day, but you are only allowed to keep 5 fish per species, in captivity at any time.
 
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