Biondo Monica V, Calado Ricardo
Fondation Franz Weber, 3011 Bern, Switzerland.
ECOMARE, CESAM-Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies, Department of Biology, Santiago University Campus, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
Animals (Basel). 2021 Jun 3;11(6):1668. doi: 10.3390/ani11061668.
The EU is one of the main importers of marine ornamental species sourced from tropical coral reefs around the world. While the entrance of live organisms into the EU, along with their intra-EU circulation, is framed within stringent control mechanisms, to date, no reliable figures exist concerning which marine ornamental species are imported, in what numbers, and where they are sourced from. This lack of reliable data in the EU on the trade of marine ornamental species is puzzling if one considers that all these imported specimens must be controlled at customs offices located in international airports. Such data deficiency favors the prevalence of blurry supply chains and a "business as usual" mindset that hampers any serious effort to promote sustainability in the marine aquarium industry. To safeguard the collection of findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) data, we suggest that the EU platform Trade Control and Expert System (TRACES) refines its surveillance on the trade of marine ornamental species. The detailed survey of marine ornamental fishes alone can be used as a proof of concept to validate the use of TRACES for this purpose and, if successful, it can later be expanded to all other taxonomic groups of marine ornamental species.
欧盟是全球热带珊瑚礁海洋观赏物种的主要进口地区之一。尽管活体生物进入欧盟以及在欧盟内部流通都受到严格的管控机制约束，但目前尚无可靠数据表明哪些海洋观赏物种被进口、进口数量以及来源地。如果考虑到所有这些进口标本都必须在国际机场的海关接受检查，那么欧盟在海洋观赏物种贸易方面缺乏可靠数据就令人费解。这种数据缺失助长了模糊供应链的盛行以及“一切照旧”的思维模式，阻碍了为促进海水水族行业可持续发展所做的任何认真努力。为保障可查找、可访问、可互操作和可重复使用（FAIR）数据的收集，我们建议欧盟贸易控制与专家系统（TRACES）平台加强对海洋观赏物种贸易的监管。仅对海洋观赏鱼类进行详细调查就可以作为一个概念验证，以验证TRACES在此方面的用途，如果成功，随后可扩展到海洋观赏物种的所有其他分类群体。
