Importation of marine ornamental fishes to Switzerland

Abstract

This study examines Switzerland's role in both the European and global marine aquarium trade providing basic information on trade data and offers tangible ideas on how to adapt the European Trade Control and Expert System (TRACES) to adequately collect species data. The trade in marine ornamental fishes comprises an increasingly important industry that handles millions of specimens annually. Although the potential for overexploitation of some marine ornamental fishes is great, only few mechanisms exist to control this financially strong trade. Analyses of data from 2014 to 2017 show that 19 countries exported over 193 850 fishes to Switzerland with over 70% of specimens remaining in Switzerland and the rest being trans-shipped to 11 European countries. Family diversity was between 54 and 60 taxa with most imported families being Pomacentridae, Labridae, Gobiidae, Acanthuridae and Pomacanthidae. Between 172 and 331 species where imported to Switzerland although as little as 16.9% of all imported specimens were discernible to species level in 2016. The two most traded species were Amphiprion ocellaris and Chromis viridis. The IUCN Red List labelled between 30.8% and 34.4% of species entering Switzerland as ‘not evaluated’ and ‘data deficient’. The global number of reef fish species labelled ‘not evaluated’ and ‘data deficient’ decreased from 73.3% in 2014 to 44.8% in 2018, which means that more species have been assessed by the IUCN Red List. As very few species are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), very little specific trade data is collected. This study should extend the information on species regarding trade for the classification in IUCN and proposes some species to be protected through CITES.