Most of us relate to fish on our dinner plate, but there is also a large market for ornamental fish. The Amazon is a key source for this trade since it has about 3,000 species of fish, and Peru has exported millions of dollars of pretty fish to Asia and other places. They have been raised in aquariums and taken from the wild. These harvests provide important income for many river communities, but overharvesting has badly depleted some species.
The Amazon Research Center for Ornamental Fish (ARCOF) was created to study the status of ornamental fishes, develop and promote breeding methods, and educate the public about the aquatic environment in the Peruvian Amazon. It recently opened an aquarium near Iquitos to support its outreach and research. I visited the Center in February with my colleague Andrea.
The center’s director and young staff welcomed us as we sat to exchange overviews of our groups. We then shared the main reason for our visit. While our artisan partners make many bird and butterfly ornaments, the ARCOF team was excited by our proposal to work with them to develop crafts of colorful fish they could sell in their gift shop. This partnership could help support their program and create new opportunities for our artisan partners.
Andrea and I then saw a wide variety of tiny tetras, angel fish, arawanas, pirañas, electric eels, spotted stingrays, striped catfish, beautiful discus and other popular ornamental species. They also had sabalo whose export for the aquarium trade is banned since it is a vital source of protein and income for fishing families in the region. We reconvened after our tour to discuss which species might look good as chambira fiber ornaments or better suited to balsa wood or ceramic crafts.
During our Artisan Facilitator Training in March, we challenged one small group to weave a model of the clownfish and royal blue tang – two species that live in western Pacific coral reefs better known in a Disney movie as Nemo and Dory. Two of our veteran artisans Pablo and Edson carefully examined photos of these iconic fish to develop techniques to weave fins instead of wings. After a few tries, we were all pleased with the results of their experimental samples.
Earlier this month, a young girl with a colorfully painted face come into our booth at the Romp Bluegrass Festival, immediately point at the bright striped orange and deep blue fish hanging from our ornament display and excitedly tell her mom, “Look! There’s Nemo and Dory!”
I was very happy that the idea that emerged in our visit to a research aquarium in Iquitos had evolved to the production and sale of an ornamental Asian fish ornament in the US that will benefit artisan families and conservation in the Amazon. I recently saw a clownfish for sale in a US pet store for $40 which left me wondering how much our desire to have a live piece of nature close to us affects the natural environment.
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