Consider the price

Thailand’s clown fish are being given reason
to keep smiling thanks to preservation efforts
by the Krabi Coastal Aquaculture Centre
and the Department of Fisheries

Finding Nemo may have left local theatres, but in the southern sea, a legion of brightly-coloured anemone fish, or pla cartoon, only recently arrived.

For more than a decade, the population of anemone fish in the ocean has been shrinking. Thanks to their cuteness, the fish make popular pets and thus they are often harvested from the sea to be sold at fish markets.

These little Nemos are quite vulnerable to environmental changes, though. Many suffer from the lengthy transportation times, becoming weak and plagued by disease on their way to the market. Most die a few days after being kept in a fish tank.

Yet the demand continues, and hunters comb the seas, scooping them up and selling them to vendors. To make a quick buck, some even resort to the barbaric practice of sprinkling cyanide in the water: This causes all the fish in the vicinity, the target ones and passersby too, to pass out temporarily and float to the surface. This makes it easier to harvest the desired fish, though many of the fish thus poisoned will soon die.

To cope with the situation, the Krabi Coastal Aquaculture Centre with the Department of Fisheries, initiated a breeding campaign in 2000 in an attempt to save the species and increase its numbers.

“The anemone fish has been threatened severely. We can’t let the situation go on like that. Their population has sharply decreased. Some species like the clown anemone fish are on the verge of extinction because they are so popular among fish lovers,” said Paiboon Bunlipatanon, director of the Krabi Coastal Aquaculture Centre in Krabi province.

He said the loss of anemone fish can affect the balance of the underwater ecology, and that we might one day feel the repercussions.

Paiboon insisted that he has nothing against keeping fish as pets. Yet he wanted to ask fish fans to be considerate when it comes to what kind of fish they keep in their tanks — at what price and to whom?

“Personally, I don’t have anything against fish lovers who want to keep these decorative fish as pets. But they should accept the fact that what they are doing can be very damaging to aquatic animals. It’s always true, that if there were no buyers, there would be no sellers.”

The aim of the breeding scheme is to return the miniature creatures to their natural habitat. Eventually, the fish will be bred for commercial purposes. Breeding know-how will then be passed on to villagers wanting to run anemone fish farms, as well as academics across the country. With commercial propagation in place, it is hoped that the population of anemone fish in nature will not be disturbed. Fish traders can buy the clown fish directly from breeders.

Unlike fish caught by poisoning, the fish bred at a farm will be healthier and have more chances of surviving in a new environment.

“We’re pinning our hopes on villagers. If they are skilful in breeding the fish, the anemone fish can then live happily in the ocean. In addition, the natural environment will not be destroyed,” the director said, adding that when poachers try to catch the fish, they inevitably ruin the coral reef.

The centre has been successful in breeding seven species of anemone fish found in the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand. It took the research team three years to fulfil this mission.

…

Healthy fish [fish raised by the project] are separated into two groups. The first are sold to fish vendors, who often go to the centre to pick out the fish themselves.

The other group is set aside to be returned to nature, but on the condition that they will be protected by people living in the area. So far, fish have been released at Phi Phi islands and the sea in the vicinity of Krabi province.

“We need to survey the area first, then talk with villagers about our conservation scheme. They are invited to join our campaign. Their task is to keep a watchful eye on poachers and inform me if anybody comes hunting for the fish,” Paiboon said.

“We have also returned them to many preserved areas. Several thousand have already been set free. Some tourists told me that they have noticed that the number of clown fish has increased _ they’re happy to see the creature showing up,” Paiboon said.

The team is currently experimenting with two foreign species: pla cartoon makueated (tomato anemone fish), and pla cartoon kaem daeng (spine cheek anemone fish), both of which are native to Indonesia.

In the future, the team plans to breed other kinds of decorative sea fish that are on the brink of extinction. Apart from increasing the populations, they hope to re-establish the gene pool of such creatures, for the sake of further study and future development.

“We are now collecting as many seawater fish as possible for our study and research. To save them, however, we need to enforce laws more strictly and punish those who illegally hunt wildlife,” Paiboon said.