Cyanide Use and The USCRTF

[Piero]

Yet another unruly and seemingly inconclusive debate rages on in the Industry Forums regarding CDTs. If anything, that forum has taught me not to believe a word anyone gives about 'net-caught' or MAC 'certified' anything. Does anyone else follow this?

Asking your LFS if your livestock is 'juiced' or harvested sustainably will get you nowhere...what do you think they will tell you? What do you think the wholesalor tells them? It appears, unfortunately, that there are no checks-and -balances, no objective third parties, no tests, and no legitimate certification bodies.

LINK

[JennM]

You're right - it's a joke and the industry's "dirty little secret". As a retailer I can tell you that *every* wholesaler will tell you that all their stuff is net-caught or hand-caught (you can hand-catch with juice...). It's very difficult to find clean sources of fish.

One thing we retailers can do is only buy or import from sources where Cyanide is not used - Tonga, Fiji, Hawaii, Solomons etc. Avoid Phillippine stuff, and some Indo stuff.

That being said, there *are* clean sources of PI and Indo livestock - you just have to know how and where to get them - and I can speak from experience that the good stuff is GREAT.

Still at the end of the day there's no guaranteed way to know if stuff origininating from PI or Indo is clean.

As for MAC "certification"... in my humble opinion, it's a JOKE. If anybody's actually *seen* any "MAC Certified" fish lately, I'll be surprised. There were never many to be had in the first place, and I don't know of any at all right now. And if the certified fish leave the certified chain of custody at any point, they're decertified.

When the MAC first came about, I was totally in favour of what they proposed to do - but as time and money were spent, no real results became apparent. Glad I didn't spend thousands of dollars to have my shop "certified"... waste of time and money for no certified fish supply.

Just an FYI also - a lot of Caribbean fish are caught with Quinaldine, different from cyanide, but it's still 'juicing'. The state of Florida issues annual permits for quin users... research that forum for "Quin Permits" or similar and you'll find a list that somebody posted a few months back. IMO juice is juice, no matter what it is. It's all bad.

JMHO

Jenn

[JennM]

BTW - it should be noted that the individual who started that thread on RDO is NOT a member of the Marine Ornamentals Industry. Without making a personal attack, all should be aware that the poster known as "Naesco" is in fact a real estate attorney. His son worked for an LFS for a time (still might) and he has taken upon himself to be a one-man "reeform" campaign, but his lack of industry knowledge has made him somewhat of a laughing stock on that forum.

That isn't to say that his ideas aren't good ones - just that for the last few years that I've seen him post (and others there have seen him post) he's all talk and no action. Please consider this when reading his posts - read a few others he's made and you'll see a pattern.

That forum does contain many learned industry types, I participate in that forum myself, and I've leared a LOT from it - just some folks need to be taken with a grain of salt.

HTH

Jenn

[Piero]

Hey Jenn, good to see you over here too. Yep, I'm well aware of the 'history' behind that thread starter..or at least the historical reputation.. Thanks for the feedback!
I agree despite the lack of progress over the years, that dialogue should not be avoided regardless.