An Updated Review of the Marine Ornamental Fish Trade in the European Union

TL;DR

This paper reviews the marine ornamental fish trade in the EU, showing its scale and suggesting ways to improve monitoring for conservation and biosecurity.

Contribution

The paper provides consolidated data and a watchlist for monitoring high-risk marine ornamental fish species in the EU trade.

Findings

The EU imports 26 million marine ornamental fish annually, valued at 24 million euros, mainly from Indonesia, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka.

A watchlist identifies species that likely require closer monitoring due to trade volume and conservation status.

TRACES, with minor adjustments, could improve data granularity and monitoring of wildlife trade.

Abstract

Marine aquarium keeping is a popular hobby that fuels a global industry that still heavily relies on the sourcing of wild organisms, mostly from tropical coral reefs. The European Union (EU) is one of the largest import markets for marine ornamental fish. Despite being mandatory and already fully digital, the record-keeping of what species are imported in what numbers from which exporting countries remains blurry. The present work presents curated and consolidated data reporting the value, the exporting and importing countries, and the number of specimens, species, and families of marine ornamental fish imported to the EU between 2014 and 2021. A 24-million-euro annual trade value was recorded, and 26 million specimens were imported from more than 60 countries (mostly Indonesia, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka). A watchlist is presented to provide guidance to stakeholders on which marine ornamental fish species being traded most likely require closer monitoring due to their potential impact through trade. The European TRAde Control and Expert System (TRACES) requires some minor tunning to enable authorities to easily monitor the imports of marine ornamental fish into the EU, thus allowing an unprecedented insight into this and other trade activities targeting wildlife.

Wild-caught fish from coral reefs, one of the most threatened ecosystems on the planet, continue to supply the marine aquarium trade. Despite customs and veterinary checks during imports, comprehensive data on this global industry remain scarce. This study provides consolidated data on the largest import market by value, the European Union (EU): a 24-million-euro annual trade value, detailing the main exporting and importing countries, as well as the species and families of the 26 million specimens imported between 2014 and 2021. A watchlist alert system based on the number of specimens traded, import trends, and vulnerability index according to FishBase and the IUCN Red List conservation status is presented, providing key information on which species should require closer scrutiny by authorities. While the European TRAde Control and Expert System (TRACES) electronically monitors the movement of live animals to respond quickly to biosecurity risks, one-third of marine ornamental fish imported lack species-level information. With minor adjustments, TRACES holds the potential to significantly enhance data granularity and the monitoring of wildlife trade, with marine ornamental fish being an interesting case study to validate this approach.

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