Review of "Cebu Mactan Quality Marine Aquarium Fish" in the Philippine Islands
"OFF TO A GOOD START"By Charles Raabe
Having worked for a number of years as the manager of a local fish store on the coast of Mississippi, I was able to see on a regular basis, the condition of all the livestock as it arrived. Ten years ago, it was common for me to see at least a twenty five percent mortality rate upon opening the shipping boxes, which came to be accepted as a normal risk when having to ship fish in from the other side of the planet. Although, I did often wonder just exactly what the new arrivals had been through to get to their final destination within my shop. I had many visions of fish being captured with cyanide and dumped into buckets for the bumpy ride back to shore only to be held in horrendous conditions in the tropical heat and having to endure yet even more horrible conditions during their journey through various exporting / importing warehouses. It was no wonder to me that there were such losses upon their arrival at my shop. In fact, after such thoughts, I was surprised that any of the livestock arrived with a heart beat and any further losses were blamed upon what I thought just had to be careless collection and handling methods.
During the summer of 2004, with my children grown and gone, I decided to follow my dream and move to the tropics to be near the reefs that enchant me so very much. Since my wife is from the Philippines, it was the logical, and only choice for me to move here. After my first experience of laying face down over the reefs, it soon became a top priority of mine to set up a reef aquarium again. During my twice weekly trips to the reefs to do my own collecting, I often encountered local fish collectors coming back in from their day of catching fish, which they were more than happy to allow me to inspect their catch in the hopes that they could make a sale right on the beach. Having seen the condition of such fish only reinforced my belief in the sad state of the fish collecting business, also on numerous occasions, I have swam past large net bags packed with fish, anchored to the sea floor in two feet of water which the collector did as a means to hold the fish until he was ready to take them in. After a few hours of sitting in such shallow water which can easily reach ninety degrees Fahrenheit, it came as no surprise to me that I would find half of the fish dead as I returned from my own swimming activities. I later learned that the collectors in my neighborhood worked for a company that did not export the fish themselves but sent them to the capital city of Manilla to be held for export by another company. Which of course I had assumed to be a common practice.
Having seen the collectors walk off with plastic bags chock full of fish, I again began to wonder at the conditions those fish were headed for, yet could not bring myself to go visit their facility since I had assumed it would be a great disappointment. Having put it off for the last two years, since when given the choice to be in the water over the reefs or to go out of my way to visit an exporter, the reefs always won my attention, besides, I was in no hurry to see what I thought would be nothing more than a few filthy concrete tanks packed full of fish struggling to stay alive. It was only when I promised a friend, who now manages a fish retail store within the United States, that I would check on the fish exportation here was I forced to actually get my face out of the water and go visit an exporter. Had I visited an uncertified collection center, such as the one located in my neighborhood, I am positive that this article would have painted a bleak picture indeed. Thankfully I was soon to find out that there are exporters who not only collect their own stock, but take much greater care in their capture and handling.
The Visayan Island group within the Philippines.
Mactan Island located just offshore of Cebu Island.
Since my friend was looking for a quality and reliable source of marine fish, he had forwarded to me, a list of exporters within the Philippines that are certified by the Marine Aquarium Council. Only one exporting facility located on Mactan Island has gained that certification to my knowledge. A process in which an import / export operation agrees to a set of standards and has its business practices reviewed and certified as having met those standards by an independent certification company. Such certification allows us, as hobbyists and pet owners, the confidence that our pets have been caught and handled in a responsible manner as set forth in the agreed upon standards. In my opinion, any business that has the confidence to voluntarily subject itself to such scrutiny deserves being given consideration, which is why Cebu Mactan Quality Marine Aquarium Fish was chosen for me to visit.
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