Department of Veterinary Preventive Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, United States of America.
Department of Animal Sciences, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2023 May 2;18(5):e0285198. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0285198. eCollection 2023.
Aquatic ecosystems are currently facing a multitude of stressors from anthropogenic impacts, including climate change, pollution, and overfishing. Public aquariums positively contribute to ecosystems through conservation, education, and scientific advancement; but may also negatively detract from these systems through collection of animals from the wild and sourcing from commercial suppliers. Changes within the industry have occurred, although evidence-based assessments of 1) how aquariums collect and maintain their populations to determine sustainability of the environment they have harvested; and 2) the welfare of these harvested animals once within the aquariums are still needed. The objectives of this study were to assess the ecosystem health of locations aquariums frequently visit to collect fish from the wild, and then evaluate the wellbeing of fishes at aquariums after extended periods in captivity. Assessments included use of chemical, physical, and biological indicators at field sites, and use of a quantitative welfare assessment at aquariums for comparison to species reared through aquaculture. Anthropogenic pressures at field sites were observed, but no evidence of high degradation or compromised health of animals were found. Welfare assessments of aquarium exhibit tanks produced high-positive scores overall (> 70/84), demonstrating that both wild collected (avg. score 78.8) and aquaculture fishes (avg. score 74.5) were coping appropriately within their environments. Although findings indicated that fish can be taken from the wild at low-moderate rates without any deleterious impact on the environment and cope equally well in aquarium settings, alternatives such as aquaculture should be considered as a strategy to reduce pressure on known stressed aquatic environments or where significant numbers of fishes are being taken.
水生生态系统目前正面临着人为影响带来的多种压力，包括气候变化、污染和过度捕捞。公共水族馆通过保护、教育和科学进步为生态系统做出了积极贡献；但也可能通过从野外收集动物和从商业供应商采购来对这些系统产生负面影响。尽管行业已经发生了变化，但仍需要对以下方面进行基于证据的评估：1）水族馆如何收集和维持其种群，以确定其采集的环境的可持续性；以及 2）这些被采集的动物一旦进入水族馆后的福利状况。本研究的目的是评估水族馆经常前往野外采集鱼类的地点的生态系统健康状况，然后评估鱼类在长时间圈养后的福利状况。评估包括在野外使用化学、物理和生物指标，并在水族馆使用定量福利评估与通过水产养殖饲养的物种进行比较。在野外地点观察到人为压力，但没有发现动物高度退化或健康受损的证据。水族馆展示缸的福利评估总体产生了高正分数（>70/84），表明无论是野外采集的（平均分数 78.8）还是水产养殖的鱼类（平均分数 74.5）都在其环境中适应良好。尽管研究结果表明，可以以低到中等的速度从野外采集鱼类，而不会对环境造成任何不利影响，并且在水族馆环境中也能同样良好地适应，但应考虑采用水产养殖等替代方案，以减轻已知面临压力的水生环境或大量鱼类被采集的压力。
