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Ethics of wild caught fish

Realise it was never proposed as a question. However, can maybe add an extra dimension to the assumption part once you’re considering arrival in the UK.

Overwhelming killer in our shop, of all stock, is the public. Plain and simple.

Unattended kids smashing on tanks as parents are on phones, adults removing nets and reaching into coral tanks ‘to pet the corals’ covered in hand creams creating an oil slick, adults, yes adults, smacking the glass as they think it’s funny to scare the livestock.

This is everyday, every single day. When politely asking for any of the above actions to stop, we get everything from verbal abuse to physical altercations…. in a fish shop.

We don’t fear treatment of stock by anyone in the trade, we fear things like weekends, school holidays and the 90% of people who come in the store for entertainment.

COVID put store restrictions on shops so only a couple of customers could be in the store at any time and couldn’t faff around, angry crowd eye balling them to get on with their purchase. Fish were never healthier though.

The point is there is no benefit, none, for anyone in the chain to supply unhealthy fish in the transport component, whether wild caught or farm reared. To be on the supply side is sort of self selecting, you’re passionate about the livestock you care for in this process, both caught and their natural habitat, otherwise you wouldn’t have a business. No one buys dead fish.

So to the point… Mortality rates from personal experience directly correlates with the amount of exposure the stock get to a very cruel public.

Yes, yes, this is a rant. Apologies. Know it’s pointless posting this on UKAPS, we are on here as we collectively love all things aquatic and elsewhere. But instead of just ethical debates on the matter, it would be so good, so so good to see an actively enforced policy that punishes those who engage in cruel acts against livestock. They are all on CCTV but it’s pointless if nothing comes of it.
Man, I feel for you. As a customer in a shop I've once politely asked kids not to bash the glass only to be confronted by their parents that I have no right to tell their little terrors anything. This in front of them, thus emboldening their behaviour.
 
As a customer in a shop I've once politely asked kids not to bash the glass

Awesome @hypnogogia and despite the response you got, it is definitely worth the hassle 🙏🏽

Would encourage anyone who sees this in their LFS to politely do the same, you’ll be preventing a lot of fish deaths and pushing towards making it socially unacceptable in your LFS.

And apologisies @hypnogogia , don’t wish to distract from your original topic.
 
Well the only time I politely asked with my Mum there too, the woman got her boyfriend and the manager and became thoroughly abusive. It was at roughly the same time that I realised that the problem could be completely overcome if I went for mail delivery fish... and to be honest, I have never looked back, including all the reasons mentioned above.
 
They smartly allowed this woman to spew her bile for a few minutes as her husband made threats, as we all did. Then when the local intelligencia had left, we had a friendly chat and they like many other mates I have had at LFSs' told us exactly the same problem - fish dying due to kids banging. It's a sad situation.
 
Telling someone’s kid who you do not know what they can and cannot do is a bit iffy though 🤷‍♂️
 
Because we live in a generation where it’s no longer accepted as a common practice to discipline other kids.
I’ve even found it within families now. You can’t even tell a neice or a nephew off without your own siblings getting arsey.

Long gone are the days of be told off by a stranger and then getting a clip on the ear by your own parent too.
 
Because we live in a generation where it’s no longer accepted as a common practice to discipline other kids.
I’ve even found it within families now. You can’t even tell a neice or a nephew off without your own siblings getting arsey.

Long gone are the days of be told off by a stranger and then getting a clip on the ear by your own parent too.
Sadly true,
 
Maybe it's because we're a loose community of individuals that no longer have shared values.
But that's not at all true about our community, so there's hope yet 🙂
I think that’s very true. We live in a village of about 260 people, small community. We share a drive with our neighbour (but it’s our drive) and he gets upset when I ask delivery drivers delivering to him who drive over the grass verges to be careful. “How dare you tell my …”. My response to him is that I reserve the right and I’d expect him to do the same if he saw damage being caused to the drive. Sadly he just doesn’t get it.
 
Because we live in a generation where it’s no longer accepted as a common practice to discipline other kids.
I’ve even found it within families now. You can’t even tell a neice or a nephew off without your own siblings getting arsey.

Long gone are the days of be told off by a stranger and then getting a clip on the ear by your own parent too.
This is really sad, but I keep trying. Sometimes the parents are the ones who need to be educated, their kids only replicates what they see every day. It's just about how do you start this kind of (awkward) conversation.

About buying wild caught fish: this was the main reason I quit saltwater aquariums a couple of decades ago. For this time, I avoided to buy wild caught freshwater fishes as well. As I live in South America, there's a huge offer of them here for sale. But sometime ago a friend presented me 'Project Piaba' and it really changed my mind for some species (specially cardinal tetras). Same logic as what @sparkyweasel wrote here
 
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