From today's Miami Herald:
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/ne ... 891266.htm
Posted on Sat, Jun. 24, 2006
THE KEYS
Tropical fish collectors find life 200 feet deep
TROPICAL FISH COLLECTORS BATTLE EELS, SHARKS AND GLOBAL WARMING TO GET MARINE ANIMALS INTO RESEARCH LABS, AQUARIUMS AND PET STORES
BY SARA OLKON
[email protected]
MARATHON - Two hundred and twenty-five feet below the surface, a pair of wily brotula with whirling tails dart about an old shipwreck.
Forrest Young and Ben Daughtry, co-owners of Dynasty Marine Associates, give chase.
The two men are among the 100 or so licensed marine-life fishermen in Florida allowed to pluck fish from the sea for sale in pet stores, research labs and public aquariums.
On a recent morning, Young and Daughtry went five miles from the shores of Marathon in search of anthias that had been requested by a European aquarium. Before jumping in, they took extract of prickly pear cactus pills to ward off decompression sickness. Aided by battery-propelled sea scooters, the pair made it 225 feet down in six minutes.
It's no easy dive. Ascending too quickly at that depth can cause nitrogen bubbles to form in the blood, leading to the bends and possible death. They spent 1 ½ hours coming back to the surface.
The marine life, too, need help adjusting to a higher elevation. As fish come up from the deep, their air bladders expand as the water pressure decreases. At 70 feet, and then again on board, Young and his crew stick hypodermic needles into the animal's bloated air bladders to relieve gas pressure. Letting them come up slowly also helps.
''Just about all fish have no problem going from different depths,'' Young said.
TEMPERATURE CONTROL
More important, for their future life inside a fish tank, is temperature. Deeper-water fish, for example, tend toward chillier water temperatures.
The work is big business. About 80 percent of all tropical fish sold in the United States come from Florida.
Young and Daughtry's take on a recent day included four dozen salmon-colored anthias, a stumpy looking cardinal soldier fish and two hermit crabs with symbiotic anemones attached to their shells.
Once back on land, staff transported the fish into plastic bags fitted inside Styrofoam boxes. The water was infused with pure oxygen and doused with an antibiotic that turned the salt water the color of lime Jell-O. The medicine helps rid the fish of parasites and any infection. Some of the more ornery, territorial fish are kept segregated in private plastic cups.
Today's collectors -- most are men -- often help police the underwater world, reporting coral reef conditions to conservation officials and, every once in a while, alerting the Florida Marine Patrol to a scofflaw wielding a nylon net without a license.
The top collectors say they make about $80,000 a year.
''That's if you take it seriously,'' said Ken Nedimyer, a Tavernier-based collector and co-chair of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council.
It doesn't hurt that the sea hunters are an elite group. In 1998, the state licensed 727 fishermen to collect the reef animals. By 2004, that had fallen to about 100.
State officials tightened control after conservationists argued that pollution, hurricanes and rising sea temperatures were already putting too much stress on marine life. Too much rounding up of the underwater animals might, they argued, decimate animal populations.
The pay-out ranges greatly. Rare stuff from the deep runs about $100 to $150 per fish, but a small anthia nets just $10 a pop. A nine-foot tiger shark, meanwhile, can fetch between $3,000 and $5,000.
Hot right now in the retail market are the invertebrates. Amateurs are increasingly buying sea urchins, starfish, gorgonians and sea anemones to showcase in reef tanks set with live coral. The finned ones aren't so popular.
''People don't want the critters anymore,'' Nedimyer said. ``Angelfish used to be a big item, but they get bored and eat the coral away.''
THE PERILS
A day at work for these hunters sounds more casual than it is -- they dress in T-shirts, shorts or wet suits. But the perils are many.
Nedimyer has been bitten by countless spotted eels, slinky animals that hide in reefs and clamp down fast and hard on hands that get too close. Young said he's been bitten dozens of times, by everything from lemon sharks to porcupine fish.
Do the collectors feel badly about plucking the fish from the wild? In the Disney film Finding Nemo, a clown fish experiences great angst when he is taken from his family's coral reef community.
Said Young: ``Fish don't have the same emotive responses you and I have.''
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/ne ... 891266.htm
Posted on Sat, Jun. 24, 2006
THE KEYS
Tropical fish collectors find life 200 feet deep
TROPICAL FISH COLLECTORS BATTLE EELS, SHARKS AND GLOBAL WARMING TO GET MARINE ANIMALS INTO RESEARCH LABS, AQUARIUMS AND PET STORES
BY SARA OLKON
[email protected]
MARATHON - Two hundred and twenty-five feet below the surface, a pair of wily brotula with whirling tails dart about an old shipwreck.
Forrest Young and Ben Daughtry, co-owners of Dynasty Marine Associates, give chase.
The two men are among the 100 or so licensed marine-life fishermen in Florida allowed to pluck fish from the sea for sale in pet stores, research labs and public aquariums.
On a recent morning, Young and Daughtry went five miles from the shores of Marathon in search of anthias that had been requested by a European aquarium. Before jumping in, they took extract of prickly pear cactus pills to ward off decompression sickness. Aided by battery-propelled sea scooters, the pair made it 225 feet down in six minutes.
It's no easy dive. Ascending too quickly at that depth can cause nitrogen bubbles to form in the blood, leading to the bends and possible death. They spent 1 ½ hours coming back to the surface.
The marine life, too, need help adjusting to a higher elevation. As fish come up from the deep, their air bladders expand as the water pressure decreases. At 70 feet, and then again on board, Young and his crew stick hypodermic needles into the animal's bloated air bladders to relieve gas pressure. Letting them come up slowly also helps.
''Just about all fish have no problem going from different depths,'' Young said.
TEMPERATURE CONTROL
More important, for their future life inside a fish tank, is temperature. Deeper-water fish, for example, tend toward chillier water temperatures.
The work is big business. About 80 percent of all tropical fish sold in the United States come from Florida.
Young and Daughtry's take on a recent day included four dozen salmon-colored anthias, a stumpy looking cardinal soldier fish and two hermit crabs with symbiotic anemones attached to their shells.
Once back on land, staff transported the fish into plastic bags fitted inside Styrofoam boxes. The water was infused with pure oxygen and doused with an antibiotic that turned the salt water the color of lime Jell-O. The medicine helps rid the fish of parasites and any infection. Some of the more ornery, territorial fish are kept segregated in private plastic cups.
Today's collectors -- most are men -- often help police the underwater world, reporting coral reef conditions to conservation officials and, every once in a while, alerting the Florida Marine Patrol to a scofflaw wielding a nylon net without a license.
The top collectors say they make about $80,000 a year.
''That's if you take it seriously,'' said Ken Nedimyer, a Tavernier-based collector and co-chair of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council.
It doesn't hurt that the sea hunters are an elite group. In 1998, the state licensed 727 fishermen to collect the reef animals. By 2004, that had fallen to about 100.
State officials tightened control after conservationists argued that pollution, hurricanes and rising sea temperatures were already putting too much stress on marine life. Too much rounding up of the underwater animals might, they argued, decimate animal populations.
The pay-out ranges greatly. Rare stuff from the deep runs about $100 to $150 per fish, but a small anthia nets just $10 a pop. A nine-foot tiger shark, meanwhile, can fetch between $3,000 and $5,000.
Hot right now in the retail market are the invertebrates. Amateurs are increasingly buying sea urchins, starfish, gorgonians and sea anemones to showcase in reef tanks set with live coral. The finned ones aren't so popular.
''People don't want the critters anymore,'' Nedimyer said. ``Angelfish used to be a big item, but they get bored and eat the coral away.''
THE PERILS
A day at work for these hunters sounds more casual than it is -- they dress in T-shirts, shorts or wet suits. But the perils are many.
Nedimyer has been bitten by countless spotted eels, slinky animals that hide in reefs and clamp down fast and hard on hands that get too close. Young said he's been bitten dozens of times, by everything from lemon sharks to porcupine fish.
Do the collectors feel badly about plucking the fish from the wild? In the Disney film Finding Nemo, a clown fish experiences great angst when he is taken from his family's coral reef community.
Said Young: ``Fish don't have the same emotive responses you and I have.''
