Possible Major Changes To Our Hobby

[depitch]

Has anyone heard of the bill in the Hawaii State Legislature??

http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2008/Bills/SB3225_.pdf

It will limit the number of "ornamental" fish caught off Hawaiian waters.

This will directly impact the cost of livestock but I do believe it may have long term benefits.

Doug

[ckusnierek]

Regulations should have been enacted long ago. Not just for fish but corals too.

[HAROLDL]

Maybe that explains the unusual high price for Yellow Tangs lately. My LFS is selling them, small ones mind you, for $59 while the local Petco has them for $29.

[chrischris]

i think thats great because it will start makeing some vendors look into tank breeding fish

[aquasalt]

Do you think it will really affect our hobby? I have a feeling aquarists such as ourselves will continue along the same path, spending $59 on a yellow tang instead of $29. Since when has cost been a deterrent to those already in the field? Maybe it will cause more people to do their research before buying a fish and accidentally killing it. I'm in favor.

[crvz]

Originally Posted by aquasalt

Do you think it will really affect our hobby? I have a feeling aquarists such as ourselves will continue along the same path, spending $59 on a yellow tang instead of $29. Since when has cost been a deterrent to those already in the field? Maybe it will cause more people to do their research before buying a fish and accidentally killing it. I'm in favor.

I dont know, I think it's a step in the right direction. The idea of captive breeding some of the more popular fish in the hobby is surely intimidating, and lost profits at the collector or retailer side may actually start to get folks to think about it. The small to medium increase in costs that this legislation requires probably won't change much, but you've got to start somewhere.

[aquasalt]

The other thing is that this bill seems to concern yellow tangs mainly and a bag-limit of 5 tangs per person per day is still pretty generous in my opinion.

I love this hobby, but would quit immediately if we were depleting our natural reefs.