Finding Dory

Finding Dory May Have Unintended Consequences

We possibly have a real issue as June 17 roles around, although the theme for Finding Dory is obviously to free animals into the wild from zoological facilities, which is a horrible idea to begin with, many captive animals are born and raised in captivity, or have problems that will not allow them to survive in the wild. But many movies do not touch upon the very long and expertly planned processes of release, along with government regulations that may prevent certain animals from being released, and show a whale jumping over a kid into the sea. Experts have determined that so many more people will want to buy blue tangs, it might actually endanger the population. After the wake of finding Nemo, sales of clownfish went up 40%, but unlike the beginner level and captive bred clownfish, blue tangs are currently sustainably collected from the wild (at least in US trade), unfortunately, with the new amount of “hobbyists” that know little to nothing about the hobby, the fragile blue tang is not only susceptible to disease, but require large tanks.

There is one thing that might hopefully limit their demand, the price for a small blue tang can range from 30-40 dollars, and we are talking about 2-4 inches, nowhere near what Dory is and the bigger the fish the more expensive they get. Clownfish can be much cheaper at around 15 to 20 dollars. I consider myself an avid aquarium hobbyist and we all need to contact our local fish stores and make sure there are precautions taken to ensure that if the demand for these fish gets high, that it does not negatively affect the ecosystem. As a community, we should really consider, keeping the amount of sustainable captures the same, we need to look at the problem as a whole. Make sure the amount does not change, because so far they are doing ok, but with the whole world watching this movie there is no doubt that the amount of new “spur of the moment” hobbyists could really affect natural populations.

Article by Brian Vitocruz

#Environment