The marine aquarium trade in the Philippines: Balancing ecological impacts with livelihood opportunities

The marine ornamental/aquarium industry is a multi-million dollar business supported by unregulated international commerce in living organisms. Despite the potential for significant ecological impacts resulting from ornamental collections, the marine aquarium trade can promote sustainability in impoverished regions. Noting the need for a sustainable trade in marine ornamentals, the Marine Aquarium Council (MAC) has devised a certification program to manage the trade throughout the chain of custody, from collection in the field to retail sale to the final consumer. This dissertation employs a combination of ecological field surveys with socio-economic analyses to assess the impacts of ornamental fishing activities in a single collection area in the Philippines and determine the suitability of the MAC certification program to manage the trade.; Collector logs were found to be a useful tool to monitor both catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) and catch composition from collection areas in the Philippines. These records indicated that anemonefish and anemones comprised close to 60% of the total catch in the Cebu/Olango region of the Philippines. Field surveys revealed that both anemone and anemonefish densities were significantly lower in exploited areas than in protected areas and that anemone collections accounted for over 80% of the reduced density of anemonefish in exploited sites.; The relationship between the distribution and abundance of reef fishes and habitat composition and structure was studied to determine if similar patterns of association existed in protected and exploited sites. Multivariate and correlation analyses revealed that fish abundance and biomass were most often significantly correlated with substrate composition in protected reefs but were most often significantly correlated with rugosity in unprotected reefs. Both dissimilar fish species composition and differing mechanisms were found to be responsible for the discordant trend observed on protected and unprotected reefs.; Socio-economic analyses suggested that the MAC certification program has the potential to manage the trade and reduce ecological impacts, but will need strong support from retail consumers and international governments to succeed. Results of this dissertation indicate that, if properly managed, the marine ornamental industry can be sustainable and decrease other anthropogenic pressure on coral reefs through enhanced livelihood opportunities.