Tank Raised Blue Tang?
- Thread starter Raskal311
- Start date
clarionreef
Advanced Reefer
- Location
- San Francisco
Gentleman,
I believe they are simply growing out tiny blue tangs from Solomons or somewhere as this is a season for them now.
If....they are telling the truth, the ramifications are huge and suggest that a giant impediment to tank raised fishes has been breeched.
This would be very, very newsworthy!
If it is true, it suggests that other tangs including foodfish tangs ie. nasos, unicorns, vlamingis etc. may also be produced in captivity....perhaps en masse! This would feed many people.
As tangs produce hundreds of thousands of eggs....if this were true, the potential grow out numbers could be staggering...
If it is true, the fish most in danger from our trade everywhere it goes may have some relief. Blue tangs attract cyanide fishers all over Indo and PI. and they all lose all their critical habitat in the first few years of our activity.
Even in the Solomons, the crowbarring of blue tang habitat ruins what would be much greater populations of them nearer to the export center.
In Tonga, a blue tang collected means another 40 year old pocillapora stand has been broken apart by crowbars.
If they could actually be truly tank bred, it is a far greater boon then the sale of the few offered from China.
Heck...a book called breaking thru the barriers,; How we bred blue tang would be worth buying.
Consultancy gigs could be offered from lotsa places and these guys could get paid some serious bank.
However, it is most probably not true and lying about the achievement would be a natural step towards selling what they however they produced it.
Steve
ps....
I agree..I get all my news from the Colbert Report also.
Steve
I believe they are simply growing out tiny blue tangs from Solomons or somewhere as this is a season for them now.
If....they are telling the truth, the ramifications are huge and suggest that a giant impediment to tank raised fishes has been breeched.
This would be very, very newsworthy!
If it is true, it suggests that other tangs including foodfish tangs ie. nasos, unicorns, vlamingis etc. may also be produced in captivity....perhaps en masse! This would feed many people.
As tangs produce hundreds of thousands of eggs....if this were true, the potential grow out numbers could be staggering...
If it is true, the fish most in danger from our trade everywhere it goes may have some relief. Blue tangs attract cyanide fishers all over Indo and PI. and they all lose all their critical habitat in the first few years of our activity.
Even in the Solomons, the crowbarring of blue tang habitat ruins what would be much greater populations of them nearer to the export center.
In Tonga, a blue tang collected means another 40 year old pocillapora stand has been broken apart by crowbars.
If they could actually be truly tank bred, it is a far greater boon then the sale of the few offered from China.
Heck...a book called breaking thru the barriers,; How we bred blue tang would be worth buying.
Consultancy gigs could be offered from lotsa places and these guys could get paid some serious bank.
However, it is most probably not true and lying about the achievement would be a natural step towards selling what they however they produced it.
Steve
ps....
I agree..I get all my news from the Colbert Report also.
Steve
Hello Steve, Since you brought up the Solomons and crowbarring for blue tangs I thought that I should probably post what we have seen in the Solomons. I will not try to say that the collectors do not use crowbars to collect because we both know that they do and I don't need to try and lie about it. I did make a huge effort to teach the collectors to use nets to collect the blue tangs, I even supplied the nets to them to do it. I went out with the collectors and showed them how easy it is to collect with a barrier net. It worked out alright in some areas but when we went to the areas with the real numbers of blue tangs there was always a very strong current going that just laid the nets flat. It is pretty hard to explain to the guys that they have just wasted a day and a bunch of fuel to get to the blue tangs and that we are going home empty handed because the nets lay flat on the ground. Also know that all of this is done on a snorkel, no compressed air.
Anyway to make a long story a little shorter we have been getting blue tangs from the same suppliers, using the same reefs, traveling the same distance, for 14 years now. We do not collect large tangs thus leaving the pocillopora alone. Only tinys, smalls, sm mediums, and a few mediums are regularly collected. These live in smaller colonys of Acropora and the divers do break off the acropora heads to take to the boat for tang extraction. The acropora heads are then left on the same reef where it starts growing again, kind of like when a cyclone comes through. I am not defending this practice, just stating that this is how it is done. The reefs are collected about 4 to 6 months of the year then the winds change and it is too rough to access the area until the next year.
This has been happening for the past 14 years with pretty much the same collection numbers wise of tangs. It sounds kind of bad but if 14 years can sustain the same numbers it seems pretty sustainable. I have not been out to these reefs for about 6 years but when I was there the reefs looked healthy with a lot of small 12 to 18 inch acropora heads covering the reef. There were no large tables like would probably be there with no collecting but there were many more small ones. I suspect that it looks similar now. I took photos of the area but can not find them now.
So I guess what I am saying is that yes the guys do use crowbars in catching blue tangs but that it has not caused them to go further afield to find more and that if they did not use crowbars it would not bring blue tangs in closer to the export center. We are catching blue tangs from the same reefs that we caught them from first 14 years ago. There are no blue tang reefs any closer to our export station. The blue tang situation in the Solomons is not perfect but does seem to be pretty much sustainable with the 4 - 6 month on and 6 - 8 month off collecting pressure.
Dave
Anyway to make a long story a little shorter we have been getting blue tangs from the same suppliers, using the same reefs, traveling the same distance, for 14 years now. We do not collect large tangs thus leaving the pocillopora alone. Only tinys, smalls, sm mediums, and a few mediums are regularly collected. These live in smaller colonys of Acropora and the divers do break off the acropora heads to take to the boat for tang extraction. The acropora heads are then left on the same reef where it starts growing again, kind of like when a cyclone comes through. I am not defending this practice, just stating that this is how it is done. The reefs are collected about 4 to 6 months of the year then the winds change and it is too rough to access the area until the next year.
This has been happening for the past 14 years with pretty much the same collection numbers wise of tangs. It sounds kind of bad but if 14 years can sustain the same numbers it seems pretty sustainable. I have not been out to these reefs for about 6 years but when I was there the reefs looked healthy with a lot of small 12 to 18 inch acropora heads covering the reef. There were no large tables like would probably be there with no collecting but there were many more small ones. I suspect that it looks similar now. I took photos of the area but can not find them now.
So I guess what I am saying is that yes the guys do use crowbars in catching blue tangs but that it has not caused them to go further afield to find more and that if they did not use crowbars it would not bring blue tangs in closer to the export center. We are catching blue tangs from the same reefs that we caught them from first 14 years ago. There are no blue tang reefs any closer to our export station. The blue tang situation in the Solomons is not perfect but does seem to be pretty much sustainable with the 4 - 6 month on and 6 - 8 month off collecting pressure.
Dave
clarionreef
Advanced Reefer
- Location
- San Francisco
The recoverability of the blue tang population depends on the coral cover it has. The kind and the size determine the settlement of larvae.
Larger tangs need larger coral heads like the one shown.
If you break up this kind of coral you ruin it for a long time.
This size takes a few decades to grow and if destroyed are gone for good.
Middle aged fisherman will probably not even live to see them return so in a way they are gone forever.
Smaller ones can come back to smaller and younger corals and that no doubt accounts for the recruitment in the Solomons on again off again season.
In the Philippines they get hammer all the time everywhere until they are gone.
Steve
Larger tangs need larger coral heads like the one shown.
If you break up this kind of coral you ruin it for a long time.
This size takes a few decades to grow and if destroyed are gone for good.
Middle aged fisherman will probably not even live to see them return so in a way they are gone forever.
Smaller ones can come back to smaller and younger corals and that no doubt accounts for the recruitment in the Solomons on again off again season.
In the Philippines they get hammer all the time everywhere until they are gone.
Steve
Attachments
clarionreef
Advanced Reefer
- Location
- San Francisco
These little blue tangs from smaller coral heads have a better chance to settle if enough living acro and pocillaporas are around...as in the Solomons.
But, if the better coral heads are cashed in with each season, its stands to reason that the slippery slope of decline has begun.
It helps though not having a thousand fishers all chasing after every hapless tang that pops up as in Bali regions and P.I.
It does appear that crowbars give a better chance for recovery then cyanide where the entire system in burned and bleached with poison.
Non crow bars and no breaking works best of all and must be taught, followed up on, supervised and rewarded....AS NO FISHERFOLK WILL DO THIS ON THEIR OWN.
steve
But, if the better coral heads are cashed in with each season, its stands to reason that the slippery slope of decline has begun.
It helps though not having a thousand fishers all chasing after every hapless tang that pops up as in Bali regions and P.I.
It does appear that crowbars give a better chance for recovery then cyanide where the entire system in burned and bleached with poison.
Non crow bars and no breaking works best of all and must be taught, followed up on, supervised and rewarded....AS NO FISHERFOLK WILL DO THIS ON THEIR OWN.
steve
Attachments
Steve,
I agree with all that you have said above. I just wanted to let folks know that it is not all doom and gloom with blue tangs in the Solomons even though the collectors are not using best practice. Solomons is quite different from Bali or Philippines. Collectors do not go out in long boats and pillage reefs far away from their homes. Our collectors collect on their own reefs close to where they live, they can not travel and poach on other peoples reefs, it is not allowed in the Solomons. If a collectors reef has no blue tangs then he can not supply blue tangs, it is not allowed to roam to another reef to poach fish that are not found on your own reef. If our collectors do not watch out after their own reefs and protect their source of income then they have nothing, these guys understand that. They choose not to use what we have taught them about best practice but they also choose to not fish blue tangs for 6 to 8 months per year. The rough seas force that choice on them but it works for them meaning that when the sea condition turns the blue tangs are available in good numbers again every year. Luckily for the exporter different areas are collectable at different times of the year giving us a pretty regular blue tang supply.
Dave
I agree with all that you have said above. I just wanted to let folks know that it is not all doom and gloom with blue tangs in the Solomons even though the collectors are not using best practice. Solomons is quite different from Bali or Philippines. Collectors do not go out in long boats and pillage reefs far away from their homes. Our collectors collect on their own reefs close to where they live, they can not travel and poach on other peoples reefs, it is not allowed in the Solomons. If a collectors reef has no blue tangs then he can not supply blue tangs, it is not allowed to roam to another reef to poach fish that are not found on your own reef. If our collectors do not watch out after their own reefs and protect their source of income then they have nothing, these guys understand that. They choose not to use what we have taught them about best practice but they also choose to not fish blue tangs for 6 to 8 months per year. The rough seas force that choice on them but it works for them meaning that when the sea condition turns the blue tangs are available in good numbers again every year. Luckily for the exporter different areas are collectable at different times of the year giving us a pretty regular blue tang supply.
Dave
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