Julian Sprung: Is the aquarium hobby controversial? How do we unite and prosper? | MACNA 2019
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- Опубліковано 27 чер 2024
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Julian Sprung grew up on a residential island on Biscayne Bay in Miami Beach, Florida, where he spent a lot of time collecting and observing all kinds of marinelife. He is a graduate of the University of Florida, with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Zoology, and is President of the aquarium industry company Two Little Fishies, Inc. that he co-founded in 1991.
Julian has been keeping marine aquariums for more than 40 years, and currently maintains 7 marine aquariums plus a few planted freshwater displays too. He is also installing a marine pond at home that will utilize natural sunlight.
Julian became known to the aquarium hobby through his monthly column Reef Notes in FAMA magazine, and many years of traveling the lecture circuit at aquarium club meetings and exhibitions around the world. His books include The Reef Aquarium, volumes One, Two and Three, which he co-authored with J. Charles Delbeek, Corals: A Quick Reference Guide, Invertebrates: A Quick Reference Guide, and Algae: A Problem Solver Guide.
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➡ New talks added each week! MACNA 2019 Playlist : brs.li/BRStv_MACNA_2019
➡ R2R discussion for today's topic! : brs.li/R2R_MACNA2019_JulianSprung
Great presentation. A ton of food for thought. I really wish the Q&A would be made available for us online. Not just the talks.
An interesting talk, but I feel that each topic deserves its own talk or formal debate. Most folks are aware of all of these issues and just stating them with the closing arguments of “we need to work together” doesn’t really add anything.
For example: What is the actual carbon footprint to aquaculture? What benefits does aquaculture provide to our reef systems outside of reducing wild harvests? What are countries that allow wild harvest doing to make sure it is sustainable? If they are making money through export or other fees, how does that money go to use? What are the measurable impacts of that money and how it is spent?
I think that too much of the talk circled around generalities and feel-good results in order to avoid complex discussions. In some cases, there are absolutely right answers. Those right answers may not be pleasant or they may not be simple to obtain, but there are absolutely right answers.
There also needs to be a distinction between conservationists, hobbyists, and random people who just want a fish tank. It feels good to think about yourself as a conservationist, but if you aren’t actively researching or farming for the purpose of conserving a reef or are donating large sums of money/resources to a conservation group, you are just a person that buys livestock. It may be, in some cases, that your money goes into conservation, but that doesn’t make you any more of a conservationist than donating a dollar at a fast food joint makes you a philanthropist.
Then there’s hobbyists. These are the folks who want to do good by their animals, but are focused on getting their tank only. Can hobbyists sometimes make great contributions to the hobby? You betcha! But the vast majority only consume corals and fish.
Then there’s the “others” who sadly make up the brunt of aquarium keepers. These are the folks that do little to no research before they buy and end up killing everything they touch. And when something dies, they shrug as if fish are only supposed to live a month and buy a new one.
The discussion shouldn’t revolve around aquarium keepers vs everyone else, it should evolve around pushing the “others” to hobbyists and hobbyists to conservationists. Every problem the hobby faces centers around the effects of poor care; you fix the care issue, everything else goes away.
jawdroping sharp arguments and thoughts about this vital theme that needs more aquarists to do something about it if you want to keep getting fish and coral.
Keep them coming 😀
While a very similar talk at Reef Stock Australia was just posted, I still enjoyed watching this one as well. Thanks for posting!
great presentation. I feel like most people in my life wouldn't care half as much about the reef had they never seen my reef in person. nor would they even know what magical beings there are living on the reef had they never seen it in my aquariums. that plus the fact that due to aquarium hobbyists pushing the envelope on aquatic technology now we have the ability to spawn fish and corals in captivity and continue to learn more and more about these beings every year should be enough for any level headed human needs to make a positive and informed decision the health, viability, and benefit of the reef keeping hobby. Idk about everyone else but I was just at my LFS and they are basically only selling aquacultured coral now and have been for almost a year as it is. is that not enough to satisfy these peoples ignorance?
Great presentation, I wish it was much longer though. I'm a keeper of freshwater fish, but let me talk about my Bettas, fish I know Peta is trying to stop the ownership and sale of. I have 4 Bettas, 2 in 5 gallons and 2 in 10 gallons. (All separately). Yes, Bettas are what brought me into the hobby. Yes, I bought mine at Petco and Meijer. But I did as much research as possible before purchasing my first one, learning that "Betta bowls" are not sufficient living spaces for these fish, learning about what protein requirements they should have in their diets, learning about how to provide them enrichment in their daily lives. Heat, filtration, nitrogen cycle, I learned as much as I could and still try to learn every day. I can tell you for sure, fish are sentient. Each of my Bettas has their own unique personality and likes and dislikes. They interact with me, not just for food but for the sake of interaction. In fact, they're a lot like my cats, or my husband's Quaker parrot, they just live in water. I feel like animal rights organizations like Peta do some good and raise awareness for sure, but they also do harm with their heavy-handed approach and their blanket statements. People who are not educated make blanket statements, and I guess that's a blanket statement. What I mean is that they seek to keep everyone from keeping Bettas because some people don't treat them correctly, and they assume no one keeps them correctly. That would be like them trying to ban dogs as pets to everyone because some people engage in dog fighting. I didn't mean to write a novel here, and I admittedly don't know much about salt water ecosystems. But I do know that people who are REALLY into aquariums, whether fresh or salt, do not want to harm fish, inverts, corals, or the places they come from. Quite the opposite. I do believe that pet stores should invest in at least 1 gal temporary tanks for Bettas, and if they have to sell the fish at a higher price to cover that investment, well good, it will help prevent impulse purchases for little Suzie or Jimmy as a reward for a good grade or a goal scored. I wish that animal rights organizations would put more effort into educating people on responsible pet keeping, rather than shock tactics and outright bans. For salt water, deep sea trolling, over fishing, pollution, and climate change are far greater threats to reefs than frag collection as far as I understand. Let's ban that stuff if we have to ban something.
Well said.
Obviously I love aquariums because I am watching this vid. But I also am a huge promoter of environmental preservation. So I always prefer to get aquaculture life over wildcaught if I have the option. I also think that sustainability is a must for the aquarium trade. As long as it is sustainable and kept in check, it is fine. However, I don’t think we should own endangered animals if they had to be wild caught. That is just my opinion
Glad I rang that bell
Well, i smashed it....
A lot to think about
We seem to be expanding the meaning of sentience at an alarming rate.
The Free Market has had more influence over the knowledge coral care and understanding than any other source.
Guys Vincent Chalias presentation will be posted as well?
We don't have that one recorded unfortunately.
The legend the one the only... mr julian sprung- mark callahan
This fact needs to be promoted to the media:
[picture of fish] This aquarium fish will NOT be eaten by a larger fish in the ocean.
[picture of coral] This aquarium coral will NOT be degraded by climate change in the ocean.
I keep coral too and fish too. But u also have to take into consideration, having those things not in the wild means that u just removed the possibility of those creating even more of them in the wild. Plus, our tanks have our own climate change in the form of alk and so on that we need to work about
my silver dollars , blood parrot, african cichlids enjoy purple sprung seaweed.
There is just one thing that confuses me about the micro fragging. If I have a 10inch montipora capricornis, I cut it in 10 1 inch frags and put them 1 inch apart from each other, eventually they will reconnect into a 20 inch montipora capricornis, let's say twice as a fast.... how can that be used with acroporas? I frag a 10 inch acropora (stick form), and put them close to each other and they reconnect? or I will have 10 1 inch acroporas growing?
I suppose it would depend on the growth pattern. Most acros will grow up rather than out, so they may connect together on a long enough time line, but it'll take a while for it to get to that point.
Leaving aside the logistic involved in building a wall that separates two continents, would a wall, in theory, not keep out whatever it was that you were trying to keep out? I don't see the point of the "wall" being interjected into the lecture. Unless your trying to make a point on a very divisive political topic while lecturing on the hobby becoming divisive.
With the coral bleaching effects you think in 30-50 years only coral living is what in our tanks making them extinct in the wild?
Definitely something interesting to think about. I sure hope that our tanks aren't the only places to see corals in the future.
By the title, it sounds like the political climate is leaching into this hobby! oh Noos!
You can spin it any way you want, our hobby does affect the reef's around the world and even though we have good intent our hobby comes at a price, the poorer parts of the world will poach corals and fish to sell, and the only way to stop it is to not buy wild corals and fish. Will that happen, no. We can blow smoke up our rear's about all the good that comes from reef keeping but in the end, we are one of the main contributing factors to the destruction of reefs around the world.
A single hurricane or a couple half mile long fishing nets do more damage in an hour than the hobby does in a year. We provide value to reefs and provide a source of consistent income many of these 3rd world communities wouldn't otherwise have. A majority of the poaching isn't related to the aquarium hobby. It's mostly for jewelry.
On average, the US only receives around 400,000 pieces of coral per year into the country (legally) and thats like 80% of the entire world coral trade volume. And not all that is straight wild collection. Maricultured and foreign aquacultred corals are counted in that number. Compare that to any other marine imports.
Yes we have some impact, but we are not one of the main contributors to the decline of reefs. Acceptance of the trade will do more for conservation than shutting it down. We, as a hobby, keep people interested in and talking about reefs.