Thane A. Militz's study "Fish Rejections in the Marine Aquarium Trade: An Initial Case Study Raises Concern for Village-Based Fisheries”

Thane A. Militz's study "Fish Rejections in the Marine Aquarium Trade: An Initial Case Study Raises Concern for Village-Based Fisheries"

While continuous improvements in handling and transport practices helped largely to reduce mortality caused losses along the supply chain from exporter to retail, we largely fail to consider anything that happens during and after collection until reaching an export facility. However, in managing a wildlife trade and a fishery instead of trade data at export or import level, it is more relevant to know how many and what has been taken from the resource in order to manage exploitation at sustainable levels and maintain a healthy ecosystem.

Thane A. Militz's study "Fish Rejections in the Marine Aquarium Trade: An Initial Case Study Raises Concern for Village-Based Fisheries” takes a detailed look at fish rejections by buyers before export using the Papua New Guinea marine aquarium fishery as a case study. With fish rejection at export buyer level being only one factor among others such as fisher discards, escapees, post-collection mortalities, and unregulated domestic trade, these findings suggest that export/import statistics can greatly underestimate collection for the marine aquarium trade.