When Finding Nemo came out in 2003 in made big for Disney and the aquarium fish industry. People wanted to bring home Nemo and Marlin which was slightly ironic considering Dory and Marlin are trying to rescue Nemo from an aquarium in a dentists office. This had an effect on the clown fish population in the wild because according to Carmen da Silva, marine biologist and doctoral candidate at the University of Queensland, in an interview with the Huffington Post 90% of the clown fish sold are taken from the wild. When sales of the fish “skyrocketed” after the release of Finding Nemo a group of researchers started the Saving Nemo Conservation Fund to breed clown fish in captivity and release them in the wild to replenish clownfish populations on coral reefs.
With Sequel, Finding Dory, coming out on Thursday many sciences fear that Pacific Blue Tang fish will face the same fate as clownfish did 13 years ago, what has become known as the “Finding Nemo effect”. According to Hakai Magazine there is no sustainable way to breed Pacific Blue Tang fish in captivity and which means that all the Blue Tang fish that are imported to the US are harvested from the wild. While Blue Tang’s are not currently threatened of endangered if demand increases and the only way to meet that demand is to take fish from the wild these fish could easily become endangered. According to da Silva “Reef fish populations are already struggling due to warmer sea temperatures and ocean acidification caused by global warming … The last thing they need is to be plucked off reefs.”
Dory was meant to be in the ocean so just let her “keep swimming”.
Check out more details in the video below!
-Intern Meg
