Cyanide fishing

Sea aquarium
PHOTO BY CALEK/ FOTOLIA 

Ever wonder how your sea aquarium fishes are caught? These marine fishes are caught by cyanide fishing. Unlike dynamite fishing, cyanide fishing does not physically destroy coral reefs, but rather killing the zooxanthellae algae in coral polyps. Although it is illegal, it is easy to carry out and escape detection, thus making it a popular fishing method for capturing live exotic fishes for aquariums or popular edible fishes (e.g grouper). Crushed sodium cyanide is mixed with salt water and stored in plastic bottles which divers bring down to squirt the mixture into nooks and crannies of coral reefs in order to stun the fishes. It was found that fishes that ingest cyanide developed cancer within 1 year of capture ( Earth Talk, 2011). Besides just affecting the fishes captured, cyanide poison fish eggs and kills other fishes (Mak, Yanase, Renneberg, 2005). It also poison coral polyps, killing zooxanthellae which is the provider of food and colour for the corals, thus resulting in coral bleaching. Furthermore, divers may physically break coral reefs in order to catch the stunned fishes that hide in crevasse. 

Cyanide fishing
PHOTO BY OCEAN PLANET

Although cyanide fishing creates a lot of revenue for countries, the destruction it causes is more significant than its rewards. Coral reefs are depleting at a much faster rate than they can grow back. It is important that we protect marine life; they cannot protect themselves from humans. 

References: 

Earth Talk. 2011. How Dangerous Is It to Use Cyanide to Catch Fish?. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cyanide-fishing/. [Accessed 12 October 14].

Karen K. W. MAK, Hideshi YANASE, and Reinhard RENNEBERG. 2005. Cyanide fishing and cyanide detection in coral reef fish using chemical tests and biosensors. Biosensors & bioelectronics. Vol. 20, No. 12, pp. 2581-2593.