Ross, you're dead right to highlight the dangers of over-fishing. The only humphead wrasse I've ever seen were in Jordan (where people don't fish much) and off an obscure island in Madagascar. Otherwise, they're dead. Whenever I travel from my island to the mainland, there's a guy on the boat with a couple of foam boxes with live fish, destined (eventually) for the Chinese market. They are usually Serranidae - Sea Basses, Coral Trout, etc. These are very scattered, being top predators on the reef itself, and as such, need a large territory - maybe only one for every 50 metres of reef. When you've disposed of the one who patrols that 50m, the rest of the 'food pyramid' below him goes quite unexpectedly wrong. It's a bit like going into a foreign country, and ridding it of a dictator. All sorts of repressed horrors turn up. Then you have the problem that, if you've already eaten all the top predator fish, you have to go for the next largest ones, like parrotfish (molmol). They're the ones who graze on the algae on the reef, and keep them in check, so the coral has a chance. When they're gone, the faster-growing algae can swamp the coral, and the sea urchins move in. When they've finished, there's not a lot more left than bare dead rock. But we are being a little hypocritical. It was us, after all, who so depleted the fabulous Grand Banks of cod, that cod-fishing there has had to be banned. The first explorers there talked about leaning out of their boats and catching cod by hand. Now, there's nothing left. And we don't hear much about the local fishermen of West Africa (Senegal, etc) whose livelyhood is being hoovered up by European-subsidised fishermen. regards Richard Parker Siargao Island, The Philippines. My website at www.coconutstudio.com is about the island and its people, coastal early humans, fishing, coconuts, bananas and whatever took my fancy at the time. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [log in to unmask] - a forum for informal discussions on molluscs To leave this list, click on the following web link: http://listserv.uga.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=conch-l&A=1 Type your email address and name in the appropriate box and click leave the list. ----------------------------------------------------------------------