Reef Builders has learned that this week NOAA has announced a proposed rule to ban the import and export of Banggai cardinalfish in the USA, following a 2021 petition from conservation groups.
“Far too many of these gorgeous little fish have been netted from Indonesia’s wild reefs for tanks in the United States,” said Dianne DuBois, a staff scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity. “These proposed protections will give them a fighting chance at recovering their plummeting populations in the wild.”
According to a press release from the Center for Biological Diversity, Banggai cardinalfish have seen their numbers plummet by as much as 90% since the 1990s due to decades of overexploitation by the aquarium trade. Scientists have estimated that 75%-80% of the fish collected from the wild die even before they’re exported.
The United States has long been a major importer of the species, with an average of 120,000 imported each year. It is also the world’s largest importer of coral reef wildlife overall, responsible for about 60% of the global market, says the CBD.
“For far too long, the United States has contributed to the exploitation, suffering, and decline of this species in the wild by allowing imports for the aquarium trade,” explains DJ Schubert, a wildlife biologist at the Animal Welfare Institute. “Today’s proposal is the first step in eliminating the United States as a destination for Banggai cardinalfish and sending a clear signal to Indonesia that it must do more to conserve the species and its habitat.”
In 2016 the National Marine Fisheries Service listed the Banggai cardinalfish as threatened under the Endangered Species Act but failed to offer the fish any protections from trade. Monday’s proposal would ban imports and exports of the fish to reduce threats from the U.S. aquarium trade but would not ban sales of Banggai cardinalfish for the pet trade within the United States. The public has until Oct. 16 to submit comments in response to the proposed rule. – CBD.
“This is an encouraging, yet long overdue, recognition of the dire straits these unique fish find themselves in,” said Jane Davenport, senior attorney for Defenders of Wildlife. “Addressing the biodiversity crisis will take bold and transformative action; forward progress like this is urgently needed to save the terrestrial and ocean ecosystems we depend on.”
“Banggai cardinalfish once flourished in the coral reefs of Indonesia’s Banggai Islands. But they are now limited to small, isolated populations because of exploitation from the pet trade, habitat loss, and climate change. Several Banggai cardinalfish populations have been completely wiped out.”
“Coral reef ecosystems are increasingly uninhabitable by Banggai cardinalfish and other coral-dependent wildlife because of coral bleaching, the loss of sea anemones and urchins, and sea-level rise and temperature increases from climate change,” says the CBD. “This fish will not survive these compounding threats if its populations continue to be exploited by the aquarium trade.”
Reef Builders Rebuttal
We have worked with Banggai cardinalfish, Pterapogon kauderni, for over twenty years and a lot has happened in that time. For a petition to be quoting population decline in the 1990s is in no way representative of what’s been happening to protect and regulate Banggais in the 2020’s, the result of which has actually led to CITES, the treaty to protect endangered plants and animals, saying that the species does not need to return to future CITES discussions.
The IUCN Red Listed Banggais in 2007 – 16 years ago – The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration listed the species as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 2016, and the petition was formed in 2021. Why, in the latter half of 2023 has this ban been proposed when in June 2021, the same year the petition was started, CITES quashed its concerns entirely, based on information provided by Indonesia? And this is from the organization that also regulates Black Rhinos as part of its day job. It knows about conservation and endangered species…
“Scientists have estimated that 75%-80% of the fish collected from the wild die even before they’re exported.” Surely it is not the job of a scientist to estimate anything, and who were they, and when did they conduct their studies? There is a whole host of up-to-date, scientifically robust information that will refute that, that Indonesia itself ( the endemic home of Banggai cardinals,) can produce.
In June 2021 the Ornamental Aquatic Trade Association (OATA,) released the following statement:
“The Animals Committee of CITES has agreed that Banggai Cardinalfish do not need listing and does not need to return for discussion at future meetings, after Indonesia presented the latest information from its ongoing management of the species.
At a previous Conference of the Parties it had been put forward that trade in the fish should be controlled but it was agreed that the host country would instigate its own management plan first, which has proved successful.
Indonesia returned to the latest Animal Committee in June to report back on its progress and it was agreed it would continue to monitor trade itself, without the need for any international restriction. CITES also agreed it did not need to return to the subject at future meetings.
OATA Chief Executive Dominic Whitmee said: “This is good news and demonstrates that CITES recognises that species listing is not the only solution available to ensure the sustainability of trade. Interventions during the meeting proposed that Indonesia’s management of Banggai Cardinalfish should be submitted to the forthcoming CITES discussions on marine ornamental fishes as an example of best practice. We hope this means that proper consideration will be given to alternative fisheries management measures rather than just CITES listing should it be deemed action is needed.”
Indonesia has introduced harvest quotas and permits before fish can be traded. Businesses must also be registered before they can trade in the species. There has also been an investment in aquaculture and restocking in the wild.”
What we think
So why then if CITES is happy, OATA is happy and Indonesia itself is happy with the management of Banggai cardinals, does NOAA want to ban their import into the United States? Because it’s been misguided and it’s acting on out-of-date information. And that is yet another blow to the aquarium trade and a potential win for those who believe that animals of ANY KIND should not be kept as anyone’s pet.
So for now we’ll chalk this potential ban up alongside the previous Indonesian coral ban, the current Hawaiian fish ban, the Queensland ban affecting the UK, and the five species coral ban affecting mainland Europe, and we’ll give some of our hobbyist friends a ring who breed Banggais, probably the easiest saltwater fish to breed successfully in captivity.
We hope that NOAA will pick up the phone to CITES, or better still the people breeding and restocking them in the wild in Indonesia, and get a much-needed update before throwing out this ill-informed, out-of-date proposed ban.
