Finding Nemo - harder than you might think
By Charlie • June 28, 2008 • 4 commentsWe just can’t help our selfish selves can we? Just a few years after the Pixar movie came out, surging demand from the pet-trade has caused wild populations of Clownfish, the species immortalised in “Finding Nemo”, to plummet to the point where they are becoming endangered. The story is at Times Online
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Clownfishes are a whole subfamily, not just one species. I’d be interested in knowing if certain particular species are being hit hard?
Good point Nick. I took it to mean the Clownfish Amphiprion percula but nothing I’ve read specifies that. Sloppy use of the word “species” by everyone (including myself) who’ve posted about this hasn’t helped, but to be fair I couldn’t find the original piece to check for sure whether the research referred to a generic “clownfish”, the Nemo-like clownfish A. percula, or all species of similar-looking clownfish on the Barrier Reef where one of the studies took place (or even all clownfish everywhere)…I guess we need to keep looking eh?
As a society, we’re a marketers dream. This reminds me of the overbreeding of dalmations after 101 Dalmations was re-released.
Now we just need PIXAR to do a movie on conservation and habitat restoration and “society” will have no choice but to comply.