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.
