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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 12, 2016)
Street Roots • August 12-18, 2016 News Page 8 Kevin Barden and the team of marine biologists at the University of Florida are the first to breed blue tangs in captivity. photo courtesy of university of Saving Dory With the popularity of “Finding Dory, ” another Hollywood-fueled pet craze is upon us - this time with fish illegally harvested from the wild, with no thought for them or the ecosystem BY LUCY SWEET orange and white stripey fish that has almost taken the species towards extinction. More than one million clownfish e’d all love to own a cute film animal, are illegally harvested from the Great wouldn’t we? A rat that sits on your shoulder and helps you make the dinner, Barrier Reef every year, with 90 percent of the clownfish being supplied from the wild. perhaps. Or a Mutant Ninja Turtle to eat Karen Burke Da Silva, a marine biologist pizza with. Or a ginger tabby, like Street at Flinders University in southwest Cat Bob, who makes his film debut in Australia, was so concerned that a decade November, and raises a paw to do clever ago she and a group of colleagues founded high-fives. Who wouldn’t want these guys Saving Nemo, a project that aims to solve as pets? It’s the stuff every kid’s dreams the problem by breeding clownfish in are made of. captivity and supplying them to aquariums. And thanks to Pixar’s “Finding Dory” “There was a dramatic increase in you can bet that parents everywhere will demand after the movie, and there find themselves pestered to come up with continues to be a large interest in clownfish the goods, in the form of a photogenic blue as pets and in the marine aquarium trade tang. in general,” she said. “The industry is Unfortunately, the reality is a lot less huge, with millions of dollars being spent appealing than the winsome character voiced by Ellen DeGeneres. And it could be and millions of fish being taken from the wild.” an environmental disaster waiting to The impact that “Finding Nemo” had on happen. the wild clownfish population has been There have been plenty of cute critter devastating but at least they can exist film heroes, from Bambi to Babe. But clownfish are the first species in the animal comfortably in a tank, if they survive the leap from the reef to your house. The blue kingdom to drastically suffer from their tang is a different kettle of fish. silver screen fame. Back in 2003, “Finding “I am particularly concerned about the Nemo” created a demand for the small . CONTRIBUTING WRITER W future of the blue tang,” said Da Silva. “If the craze takes off then we have a real problem, since 100 percent of them are being taken from the reef and this species could be in real trouble if illegal fishing practices persist.” Approximately 300,000 wild blue tang were being traded globally in preparation for demand due to “Finding Dory.” But buying one could be a painful mistake. “If these fish are taken into captivity, they don’t make great pets,” said Da Silva. “They have a toxic spine that can deliver a big sting, and they grow too big for most home aquaria.” You would need at least a 75-gallon tank if you wanted to house your own Dory as they grow up to a foot long. Not so cute now, is she? Of course, pet crazes are nothing new. Simon Drew, a scientist in geography at Newcastle University in England, recalls the misadventure that followed his brother’s insistence on getting terrapins after seeing the original Mutant Ninja Turtles film in the late 1980s, when they were readily available in pet shops but with little information on their care. “Mum was F lorida
