Its a real pity that these populations are endangered by poachers, who are likely sourcing the fish for use in aquariums as a show piece. There is a real divide between the public who know and care about endangered species, and those who just want to be posers and have something rare and valuable to impress their friends. I truly wonder sometimes at just what sort of mechanism would be required to make this situation lesser so - the same with elephant poaching. Just how can we deal with the social issue whereby some people care about preserving the environment, and some just want to demonstrate their cool factor by having rare, 'special' things? We in the technology world have to take a bit of responsibility for this - we're constantly bending this innate desire to impress to our will in an an effort to establish market dominance and capitalistic/consumerist goals .. but on the other hand, we have the tools to reduce this factor immensely, by way of community-building and education. Could there be some sort of 'rare animal' streaming service which supplants the aquarium-/mantel-mount factor, and gives everyone access to these beautiful creations, and not just a special, elite? One wonders just how to get such a startup booted up .. without becoming the very thing it'd be designed to resist (poaching)...
> Just how can we deal with the social issue whereby some people care about preserving the environment, and some just want to demonstrate their cool factor by having rare, 'special' things?
I've had a crazy idea for a while: sell certificates for those crazy collectors.
The certificates show that the collector has financed x and y to protect species z.
The certificates are numbered and traced.
Get a couple of celebrities to buy a couple of pre-owned certificates for a higher figure than they were sold originally and hey - we git an instant collectible.
(Yes, tongue in cheek; for those who likes blockchains: You can even have your own blockchain for supporting animals..!)
I would imagine regulations and law enforcement. Catering to such demand usually only makes it mainstream and greatly increases it. The divide between those who care and those who just want to do what they want to do is more or less the same in every field, but difference here is species (niches) once lost can pretty much never be brought back.
The stakes are higher when losing a keystone species, say, versus a Van Gogh (just for examples sake, I certainly hope we can preserve both). Yet sadly more people identify with the creations of their own species, than outside their species.
Breeding elephants, however, is quite the tall order.
Irrespective of the challenges their sheer size presents, they’re also relatively smart, and happen to live in conflicted territories. Convincing elephants that they should feel safe, and command enough familiar territory to breed openly is an additional complexity.
Is there enough room for 100,000 or a million more elephants? I’d like to think so, but what do I know?
