SAVING THE RAINFOREST, ONE PET FISH AT A TIME: DESPITE THE OBJECTIONS OF ANIMAL PROTECTION ORGANIZATIONS, CAREFUL COMMERCIAL FISHING MAY BE THE BEST BET FOR THE AMAZON AND THE WORLD'S AQUARIUMS.

• Author: Federl, Fabian

"CROCODILE!" CELIA CASTRO Pinheiro calls back to her husband as she steps into knee-deep water of the Rio Negro, a tea-colored river that begins in the Colombian mountains and flows into the Amazon below the Brazilian city ofManaus. Castro Pinheiro wades cautiously ahead, holding a machete high, worried less about carnivorous beasts and more about the condition of her fish trap, known as a fyke.

When she reaches the bag net structure, about 4 by 2 meters in size, she sees the wooden struts are broken and the net torn to shreds. This is bad news: Thousands offish, several days' catch, have either escaped or been eaten by the crocodile.

"It was a young one," Castro Pinheiro says of the creature, with surprising composure, "no more than two meters long." Her husband, Jel Pereira da Silva, crouches on the riverbank, resting his rifle on his knees. "It's somewhere around here," he says, tapping his rifle. "Either we dismantle the trap and find another place or I'll stay here tonight, until the crocodile comes out of hiding."

The couple live in the state of Amazonas in northwestern Brazil, and their livelihood is threatened by more than hungry reptiles. Every day in the Rio Negro, they catch and sell fish that are later displayed in aquariums from New York to Berlin to Tokyo. According to estimates from Jens Crueger, president of the Association of the German Aquarium and Terrarium Associations, more than 100 million aquariums are maintained in living rooms around the world. By sheer numbers kept, ornamental fish are the world's most popular pets. The ornamental fish trade is estimated by the World Wildlife Fund to have a retail value of over $15 billion annually.

Most of the ornamental fish in pet stores come from breeding facilities. A smaller, though vital, proportion are wild catches from tropical rivers, delivered through the sweat and care of the likes of Castro Pinheiro and Pereira da Silva. Animal rights and conservation organizations don't like it when animals are caught in tropical waters and flown around the world so that people can relax at the sight of them. And some objectionable practices are sometimes associated with the trade. Some wild-caught fish, for example, are stunned with poison and then snatched. Unscrupulous middlemen often fail to care for fish appropriately. Sometimes they send the catch around the world crammed unsafely into plastic bags filled with water.

"If they do not perish from the damage they suffered during capture and transport, many animals die from diseases [as they are] weakened by constantly changing water conditions," writes the Tierschutzbund, an animal welfare association in Germany. That group asks ornamental fish fans to limit themselves to regionally bred species. The international animal protection organization PETA wants to end the practice of holding fish in aquariums entirely.

In many places, laws are being passed that make it more difficult to trade ornamental fish. In January 2021, Hawaii, one of the most important sources of ornamental marine fish, completely banned commercial ornamental fishing. India has banned trade, sale, and display of over 150 of the most common ornamental fish. A wide array of members of Parliament in Britain have called for a total ban on ornamental fish import. And direct person-to-person sale of live ornamental fish (which is, according to Crueger, a dominant trade channel) is banned on Facebook and Instagram.

If such activists succeed in seriously restricting this long-lived hobby, what will become of the people who make a living catching the fish? On the Rio Negro alone, 40,000 fishermen and women survive off this practice. There, at the beginning of the supply chain, you get a different view of ornamental fishing, one that recognizes how it can be good and sustainable for both human beings and the fish they hunt and keep.

LIFE ON THE RIVER

ON THE...