Amazon Freshwater Stingrays Gain Much-Needed Protection — Will It Be Enough?
Among hardcore aquarium hobbyists, trends can shift fast, resulting in rapid growth in demand. Eventually, captive breeding can reduce conservation issues associated with the aquarium trade, but until then, the trade places too much pressure on wild specimens.
“When a species is newly discovered, a big market can develop for them immediately, before there’s a chance to perfect captive breeding,” says Michael Baltzer, executive director of SHOAL, a freshwater fish conservation organization. “This is a case for being cautious because there’s often very little regulation on the trade in these species, and it can be very easy for people to collect fish and sell them all over the globe.”
Ironically, this trade exploits Brazilian workers when collectors in the country buy animals on the international market after a chain of middlemen has raised prices. “Nowadays, Brazil imports some of the most expensive aquarium fish, even though they’re from Brazilian waters,” Charvet says. “We’re exporting today what our fishermen won’t be paid to catch tomorrow.”
Imperfect Protections?
All Amazon stingrays were previously listed under what’s known as CITES Appendix III. This gets less attention than Appendix I, which bans all international trade in a species, or II, which strictly regulates all international trade, requiring both import and export permits. Appendix III does not require an international vote at a CITES Conference of the Parties. Instead, it just requires a nation to declare that it’s adding an additional level of protection to this species found in its territory.
The new regulations elevated the two species — P. leopoldi and P. wallacei — to Appendix II. They also protected five “lookalike” species — those who are not as threatened as the target species but look similar enough to cause trouble at the level of customs import inspections. They are therefore granted the same type of protection.
Appendix II listing of some freshwater stingrays now means that more regulation and documentation are required to export or import these animals.
Many shark and ray species previously listed on CITES are threatened by overfishing that targets these animals due to people wanting to eat their meat and fins. The listing of Amazon freshwater stingrays is slightly different since they’re targeted for the live-animal trade, but the mechanisms are the same.