Developing an International Standard for the Trade in Live Reef Food Fish - SEAFOOD Ecolabelling: Principles and Practice - page 162

Figure 8.1 Expansion of the live reef fish trade from the 1970s to the present. (From Sadovy et al .

2003.)

has usually occurred by Hong Kong-based companies negotiating with industry
and/or governments in the source countries for access to the resource through local
businessmen. Fish enter the trade either as wild-caught fish that are held briefly
before export (about 50-70% of the total trade), as undersize fish that are grown in
cages or ponds until they reach market size (15-40% of the trade) or as fish reared
from egg to market size in controlled conditions in full-cycle aquaculture (about 10-
15%) (Sadovy et al. 2003). While some countries do support full-cycle aquaculture
methods, most rely on wild-caught juveniles for grow-out. Grow-out of undersized
wild-caught fish has expanded considerably in SE Asia - most probably in response
to overfishing of market-size fish - using fish collected locally and occasionally
cultured fish imported from Taiwan (Sadovy 2001). While the increase in grow-
out from hatchery production is a positive industry development, there is growing
concern over the parallel increase in grow-out of wild-caught juveniles for market.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that in some regions, market-size fish of some species
have been extirpated, and now only juveniles are caught and grown-out locally to
be sold when they attain market size.
Mainland China, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Australia and
Vietnam have historically been the major exporters of wild-caught LRFF, and wild-
caught fry and fingerlings for grow-out, accounting for approximately 95% of all
recorded imports into Hong Kong (Muldoon 2007). Historically, small quantities of
LRFF have been exported from Japan, Myanmar, Singapore, Brunei and Cambodia
in the SE and East Asia region, the Maldives and the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean,