The Dark Hobby

All the pretty fishes and the price paid to tank them.

Overview

The Hawai'ian Islands are ground zero for the aquarium trade who capture and traffic reef fish for hobbyists’ tanks, decimating the reef, ocean and earth’s oxygen. Native Hawai'ians, conservationists, scientists, aquarium fish collectors and breeders are locked in a controversy over the stunning “treasure of Hawai'i” – the ornamental fish.