Approximately 25% of marine species utilize coral reef habitats throughout their lifetime. Reef fisheries’ have an estimated commercial and recreational value of $100 million annually in the U.S. alone. It is predicted that 70% of coral reefs will be lost worldwide in the next 40 years without proper management. Overexploitation and destructive collection methods, such as using explosives and sodium cyanide to make capture more manageable, by local fisheries in high-export countries such as the Philippines have led to decreased fish populations and habitat loss. The decrease of marine fish populations is one of the many contributing factors leading to the demise of living coral reef habitats, 30% of which are already in critical condition.
An estimated 90% of marine ornamental fish in public and home aquariums are obtained from wild sources. Larval culture is an attractive alternative to wild capture in that it reduces the stress and mortality that occurs from transportation, acclimation, and disease. A unified effort to identify and catalog fish eggs collected in public aquaria has led to many of the recent developments in successfully rearing eggs and larvae from natural spawning events of existing collections.
Public aquaria provide an invaluable opportunity to inform the community of ecological threats. The Texas State Aquarium informs as many as 625,000 visitors annually, reaching an additional 60,000 through educational outreach programs each year. Public aquariums can continue contributing to conservation efforts and reducing the number of wild-caught fish in the future by committing to purchase aquacultured fish and growing their own in specially designed aquatic systems. In-house rearing provides unique opportunities to support wild fish populations and sustainable aquaculture by emphasizing the importance of coral and oyster reef habitats while highlighting the fish lifecycle throughout exhibits. These exhibits will expand upon partnerships with local aquaculture and habitat restoration programs to further promote sustainable sources of marine organisms.