Humphead wrasse and the live fish trade

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Humphead wrasse and

the live fish trade

The major threat to humphead wrasse populations is the live fish trade, where fish sold alive fetch premium prices -- which unfortunately is incentive for fishers to continue searching even at low population densities.

THE SOCIAL ASPECTS

Humphead wrasse are the primary target for the live fish trade. The fishers make long dangerous dives using air supplied from a car tyre compressor on the surface and a long hose. Regulators are not used, the fishers breathe directly from the air bubbles. The fish are caught by being chased into a rock crevice and then stunned using cyanide. The fishers have no watch nor depth gauge and do upwards of 5 dives of about 1h to 20-40 m each day (some dives are deeper!). Not surprisingly, bends are common and deaths frequent. The local treatment for a bad bend is to bury the victim up to the neck in sand. The victim apparently either dies or recovers with the limb permanently fused.

HUMPHEAD WRASSE ARE EXPORTED FROM SABAH, MALAYSIA, AS "PARROTFISH" AND SOLD IN LIVE FISH RESTAURANTS IN THE CAPITAL UNDER THE SAME NAME. THE RESTAURANT PRICE IS EQUIVALENT TO USD$80 PER KILO.

HUMPHEAD WRASSE IN AN EXPORTER'S HOLDING CAGE IN SABAH. THERE WERE MORE INDIVIDUALS IN THE CAGES OF A SINGLE EXPORTER THAN WERE SEEN IN SURVEYS OF OVER 100 KM OF REEF.

All of the fish were juveniles or females but the exporter had a few large males in other cages.

All of these fish had been caught by cyanide and most had come from waters outside Sabah.

|SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR| |SPAWNING|