Whatever your opinion is on the causes of global warming, rising sea surface temperatures are causing well-documented bleaching events once again this year over a wide swath of Indo-Pacific coral reefs – many of which provide the homes for the fishes we commonly see in the aquarium industry.
The Breeder’s Registry has been promoting aquarium breeding of marine fishes and invertebrates since 1992. From the very beginning, there were those in the hobby who expressed concern that if we increased the domestic production of these animals to a great extent, the fishers on the coral reefs would be out of work. Here we are 18 years later and the importation of wild caught aquarium fish and coral still continues to increase. Yet the controversy persists.