FINDING NEMO: AN ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEM

Most probably you’ve watched the movie ‘Finding Nemo’ with your kids. One of its key messages is to respect fish and nature in their natural habitats.

Nemo’s warm, friendly character gives us the storyline with his problem of short-term memory loss. Where does he come from? How does he know how to speak cetacean? It’s a fun film, don’t you think? Sure, the kids love the movie but Nemo’s popularity meant that many youngsters wanted to buy a clown fish to keep as a pet. This led to a 40% increase in sales of clown fish, according to a report by the International Journal of Marine Sciences. But as the clown fish adapts relatively easily to reproduction and life in a tank, this did not cause a large scale environmental problems.

Blue surgeonfish and clown fish from the movie ‘Finding Nemo’

The dilemma grew however with the premier of Finding Dory. In this case, the surgeonfish (Nemo) is not a species that is not suitable to live and reproduce in a tank as the owners of the fish shops and aquariums would have to take them from their natural habitat in the wild in order to meet the demand.
Did you know that the only places on earth that clown fish can be found are in the corals of the Pacific and Indian Oceans?

Ocean in Bali, Indonesia where coral reefs are being destroyed (photo © Green Diosa)

But the problem does not end there, The issue is compounded because the fishing methods used are not environmentally friendly. Fisherman trying to trap clown fish use sodium cyanide to flush them out of their natural habitat as it’s regarded as the best way to stun and catch them. You would imagine that a toxic substance like sodium cyanide would also be deadly also for other species of marine life that inhabit the area and also for the coral reefs themselves. Most clown fish are caught in the reefs of Indonesia and the Philippines, where there are no regulations for catching fish or for the use of hazardous chemicals that damage corals. An environmental disaster, wouldn’t you think?

But it’s not all bad news. Luckily the problem that had started with ‘Finding Nemo’ alerted biologists and they began to investigate possible solutions to reduce the environmental damage caused by this high demand for these type of fish. And they began working on projects that allow the breeding of blue surgeonfish. Because these fish are unable to reproduce in captivity and have very complex needs, many results have not been conclusive due the high mortality rate.

Also, the blue surgeonfish is sold as a 1 to 2 inch animal but can reach up to 12 inches in adulthood. Species of this size require the minimum of a 180 litre fish tank. Can you imagine fitting a tank of this size in your home?!!

more fish in the sea? Mural in Bali (photo © Green Diosa)

So if you or your child are fish lovers, please do not make the problem worse. A surgeonfish will live only a few years, you are then going to have to throw it away. In the long run this could negatively affect the species and the places where it lives. Honestly, is it worth making a fish suffer to decorate your house? And if your child wants you to buy one of these fish, why not teach him or her the reasons why you can’t and shouldn’t be buying it. (Source: Humane Society International)

Teach him / her to develop their environmental awareness!

GREEN DIOSA RECOMMENDS

LET’S NOT LOSE OUR SHORT-TERM MEMORY LIKE NEMO. REMEMBER THIS STORY, LET’S BE RESPONSIBLE CONSUMERS AND WITH EACH GRAIN OF SAND, WE CAN RAISE AWARENESS ABOUT PROTECTION OUR MOTHER EARTH, OUR PLANET AND OUR HOME.