FW: hybrids/illegal importation

Bruce Hansen (bhansen at oznet02.ozemail.com.au)
Tue, 16 Jul 1996 08:29:41 +-1000

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From: Bruce Hansen[SMTP:bhansen]
Sent: Tuesday, 16 July 1996 8:27
To: 'rainbowfish at pcug.org.au'
Subject: RE: hybrids/illegal importation

From: peter.unmack at ASU.Edu[SMTP:peter.unmack at ASU.Edu]
Sent: Monday, 15 July 1996 5:50

I think we all owe Peter a big vote of thanks for the effort he puts in. I
for one
have learned a lot from this discussion..

Unfortunately i have to start packing for my trip and panic is quickly
swamping anticipation as it sinks in how much I still have to try to fit in
between work and this "stupid time-consuming email list" :-)
I'll be away for three weeks and if yesterday's volume is going to continue
it will take me 4 hours just to download when I get back.

I have kept hard copies of the discussion (minus most of the banter) and I
will take it with me to try to summarise around the campfire but no
promises. I have really enjoyed the topic and the efforts of all
contributors.

I would like to conclude by observing that my comments have been my own but
have been mostly made from the viewpoint that I feel is that of a majority
of ANGFA members who after all are members because the association is
supposed to be encouraging people to keep fish from New Guinea (as well as
from Australia). It is hard to convince enquirers that the fish that came
in before the "ban" were somehow less dangerous/ diseased/
competetive/allopathic/etc etc than other species from the same family of
small attractive schooling community fishes that have been safely kept here
for 20 years. Under these circumstances, even though ANGFA is against
smuggling because of the dangers ( especially of diseases), it is no wonder
that otherwise "sensible" people find it hard to resist the temptation when
they can see these little jewels healthily swimming around in the tanks of
our OS compatriots.

I am not a scientist ( I guess that shows to the "real" ones) but I love
and care about our native fishes and their environment and I deplore the
"academic arrogance" and "paternalistic" attitudes that are often seen in
this sort of discussion. Thankfully this has not been a feature here and I
feel we "mere mortals" have not only learned a lot but contributed somewhat
also.

I would recommend to youall ( you all if you are Australian) to keep
thinking about ways we can help provide truly helpful evidence that may aid
our endeavours to legally facilitate the entry of some more " Jewels of
Sahul" from our near north. To me the biggest stumbling block is the lack
information and there doesn't seem to be enough field work being done to
fill in the gaps. I don't think anything we aquarists can do in our aquaria
is going to convince any one but ourselves ( and that includes multiple
cross-breeding experiments). I am a little depressed ( not common in an
optimistic fatalist like myself) at the thought that eventually the
bureaucrats ( advised by their "rocket scientists") will eventually
legislate to prevent us from keeping anf fish that doesn't come from the
watershed that our house sits on. All others will be banned because of the
various risks ( usually numerically unexpressed)
to the genetic purity of existing stocks that have not been acceptably
assessed, and there are no plans to do so because of other priorities
including lack of funding.

In conclusion an observation ( the visual plus intelluctual conclusion
kind) that even predatory fishes like grunters are schooling animals under
the right circumstances and not only with their own species. I have sat on
the banks of the Jardine River and watched mixed schools of Grunters (
Sooty, Coal, Spangled and Lorentz's) cruising up and down so behaviour in
our aquaria does not necessarily equate with behaviour in the wild so be
careful of our environment. Conservation starts in our own bachyard,
literally as well as metaphorically.

Bruce Hansen

ANGFA Q+N