Live Fish Trade - Fishing Techniques

Fishing Techniques

While live food fish trade can be very profitable for those involved, there are many dangerous aspects to it. Through the use of illegal practices such as cyanide fishing, coral reefs and fish communities are put in grave danger. The process of cyanide fishing involves injecting crushed cyanide tablets and squirting this solution from a bottle toward the targeted fish on top of coral heads. Specifically, the cyanide kills coral polyps, symbiotic algae, and other coral reefs organisms that are necessary for maintaining the health of the coral reef. These damages eventually deteriorate the coral reef and lead it into collapse of the entire coral reef ecosystem. The effect on the targeted fish is disorientation and semi-paralysis. After being squirted with cyanide the fish is easy brought to the surface and kept alive in small, on board container. Fishermen often understand that this practice is harmful and will offer locals a portion of the fish in order to continue fishing. When ingested, small levels of cyanide accumulate in the system causing weakness of fingers and toes, failure of the thyroid gland and blurred vision. Divers without experience may come in direct contact with cyanide, causing death. Estimates show that since the 1960s, over a million kilograms of cyanide have been squirted into the coral reefs of the Philippines alone (Bryant et al.). The harm upon the reefs is coming full circle and having a social impact through the limited fish stocks. As fish are depleted from these fishing techniques, the fishermen are having a more difficult time feeding themselves (Cyanide). Additionally, the use of explosives may be used as a fishing technique in the live food fish trade. While the majority of these fish do not survive the blast of such explosions, the remaining fish that are only stunned are collected for the live food fish trade. The use of cyanide makes a stronger argument in that the more coral reef fish captured alive, the more lucrative the catch is for the fisherman. Live fish, according to the, fetch five times more than a dead fish (Cyanide). This is why banning the live-fish trade would similarly harm the reefs. Fisherman would resort to the "dead fish trade", be forced to deal in a larger quantity of fish, and the process of dangerous fishing techniques continues. To illustrate the effects of repeated explosions in the proximity of a coral reef system, roughly one half of the coral reefs in Komodo National Park in Indonesia have been destroyed (Moore). The use of cyanide and explosives in fishing proves to be an effective technique in catching fish, but its powers are indiscriminating and as a result the coral reefs are being held hostage to such practices. The future of the reefs are in question just as are the futures of those who subsist from them because "from a long term perspective, the question of ethics of using the ocean...contains a commitment for future generations" (Grover 129).