What is cyanide fishing?                                                                                                                 

Cyanide fishing is a popular method of capturing live reef fish for the seafood and aquarium markets.  It is widely practiced in Southeast Asia and South Pacific and is starting to spread to other parts of the world.  Cyanide fishers squirt cyanide into coral holes and crevices, where reef fish seek refuge.  The cyanide stuns the fish, making it easy for cyanide fishers to capture their dazed prey.  The cyanide poisons reefs and is extremely harmful to coral polyps and other reef organisms.   Furthermore, less than half the fish caught with cyanide survive long enough to be sold to aquariums or restaurants.

Are cyanide fishing practices increasing?

• When the practice began cyanide fishing was primarily used to gather tropical fish for aquariums.  Now, in addition to the aquarium trade, demand for live fish for restaurants in many Asian cities is increasing the drive for this destructive practice.
• An estimated 65 tons of cyanide are sprayed each year on Philippine coral reefs alone.
• Destructive cyanide fishing practices are spreading from currently over-harvested and devastated reefs in the Philippines to remote and pristine coral reefs in eastern Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Palau, Tuvalu, the Federated States of Micronesia, and other nations of the Western Pacific.

Why do people use cyanide?

In the South Pacific and the Southeast Asia market demand for live reef fish has created incentives for local fishers to turn to modern fishing techniques, such as cyanide fishing, to support themselves and their families.  The profits from live fish, such as grouper, wrasse, rock cod and snapper are many times higher than that of dead fish.   Exporters demand much more money for live fish than dead fish at luxury fish markets in Asia.  While most nations have decided that the profits from cyanide fishing are not worth its destructive cost, many governments do not have the resources to monitor and enforce laws against cyanide use.

What can you do to stop cyanide fishing?

• Don't purchase live reef fish at a restaurant or only purchase it if you are certain it was caught in a sustainable way.
• If you own an aquarium, make sure you have reef fish that were caught without cyanide.
• Encourage your aquarium shop retailer to purchase fish that are caught by fishers who use nets instead of cyanide.