I agree with Louis and Vitz that aquaculture will be the way to go. References were made to the fresh water fish industries, I am sure that the natives were faced with the same problems. Meaning that if the fish they catch from the wild will be aquacultured they loose their livelihood. But I believe people adapt just like they did before there was a SW ornamental industry.
I have been crunching some numbers and I believe that if the demand is there an aquaculture company could bring their cost down, and with this the cost of the fish should get close to that of wild cauth fish.
The price may not get as low as to be worth selling to distributors but if the aquaculture company distributes the fish to LFS/reefkeeper then it should be able to offer the fish for the same price that that LFS used to get it for from the distributor. Again selling to the end user will bring more margins and should be able to offset things better.
I think there may be things to be learned from the tech industry. Cost are high in the beginning but when demand/volume picks up then cost will go down and that will drive the price to the user down also.
Maybe I should not say too much until I've had the chance to demonstrate it in action. As they say: "Action speaks louder then words" and I intend to give it my best effort and show through action.
I apologize for my long rant.
David
