It’s Not A Lot Of Fun Being A Clownfish

Posted on January 3rd, 2006.

Thailand’s marine-life breeding centre in Krabi has been countering marine poachers by releasing nearly 2000 clownfish - made famous by the film Finding Nemo - into the wild. Unfortunately only eight survived the first 24 hours.

Snip from The Nation newspaper:

“The problem with the aquarium-bred fish, said Kasetsart University marine scientist Thorn Thamrongnawasawadi, was that they’re not very “worldly”.

Thorn is an adviser to the breeding centre, which is partially funded by Krabi’s Pimalai Resort.

“Once being released into the sea, they don’t know what to do, where to go, which of the other marine critters are their friends and which are the enemy.

And so, after 24 hours loose in the ocean, only eight remained of 1,800

“It costs about Bt200,000 to release one Nemo into the sea,” said Thorn.

“Think about this before buying any clown fish taken from the sea illegally.”

He lamented the fact you could buy the fish commercially for as little as Bt5 each.

“It’s cheap and easy to take them from the sea, but expensive and difficult to put them back,” he said.

This tragi-comic story has also taught me something new - up to now I thought I had seen lots of clownfish while diving in Thailand, but clearly they are not the proper “Nemo” clownfish, just similar-looking cousins. The article even namechecks Koh Haa, one of the great dive sites off Koh Lanta,and notes the predominance of “Indian fish, a close relative of the clown fish”.

If you are thinking about populating an aquarium with exotic fish, please don’t. The aquarium trade just encourages widespread poaching and ultimately destroys both ecosystems and livelihoods because if there’s no fish left, divers will stop going there. Please leave the fish alone in the water. Let them stay in the sea where they belong, just like the Nemo movie said. Otherwise I’m going to come round your house and drop a stonefish in your lap.

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