Original language: English CoP19 Inf.

68

CONVENTION ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN ENDANGERED SPECIES

OF WILD FAUNA AND FLORA
____________________

Nineteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties

Panama City (Panama), 14 – 25 November 2022

MARINE ORNAMENTAL FISH TRADE IN THE U.K.

1. This information document is submitted by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science
(Cefas), United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in relation to agenda item 80. *

2. This document provides species-level information on the UK’s trade in marine ornamental fishes from a
sample of import shipment documents across the years 2018 and 2019.

Background

At its eighteenth meeting (CoP18, Geneva), the Conference of the Parties adopted Decisions 18.296 to 18.298
on marine ornamental fishes. Descision18.296, directed the Secretariat to convene a technical workshop to
consider the conservation priorities and management needs related to the trade in non-CITES listed marine
ornamental fishes worldwide with a particular focus on data from importing and exporting countries.

Species-level information on traded marine ornamental fishes has historically been challenging to compile, and
best available data are generated through analysis of shipment documents, notably the United States of
America’s import records and commercial invoices which list species, volumes, and values (Rhyne et al 2012;
Rhyne et al., 2017). To support the implementation of Decision 18.296, UNEP-WCMC developed
a questionnaire to gather data from stakeholders, including the species and volumes of species of marine
ornamental fishes in global trade.

At the time of UNEP-WCMCs request, data on UKs trade in marine ornamental fishes at species resolution
were not easily accessible. In response, the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas)
on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) obtained a sample of 168
consignment documents from shipments imported into the UK in 2018 and 2019 (see methods section below
for details of samples analysed). This data provide a species-level characterization of the UK’s contribution to
trade. A summary of the main findings is presented.

Overview of marine taxa in trade

Of the 168 marine consignments analysed, 135 (80%) contained finfish (class Actinopterygii, Figure 1).
Stony corals (order Scleractinia), which are all listed under CITES Appendix II, appeared in only 15
consignments (10%). Species which were neither finfish nor stony corals, designated as “others”, were

*
The geographical designations employed in this document do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the
CITES Secretariat (or the United Nations Environment Programme) concerning the legal status of any country, territory, or area, or
concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The responsibility for the contents of the document rests exclusively with its
author.

CoP19 Inf. 68 – p. 1
present in 137 (82%) consignments. This “others” classification was largely made up of invertebrates, such
as gastropods, decapods and anemones.

Figure 1: Number of consignments containing broad taxonomic groups from 168 consignments across 2018 and
2019. Blue = finfish (class Actinopterygii), pink = stony corals (order Scleractinia), and yellow = others.
Indonesia was the greatest exporter of marine ornamentals to the UK by number of individuals. Indonesia
exported both the greatest number of individuals of finfish and individuals in the “others” category (Figure 2).
Other notable exporters of marine finfish to UK were the Philippines, Thailand, Fiji, and the Maldives (Figure 2).
Australia was by far the greatest exporter of stony corals to the UK, although it should be noted that there were
self-imposed export restrictions in place in Indonesia at the time which meant that there was no international
export of stony corals by Indonesia between 2018 and early 2020 (Figure 2).

CoP19 Inf. 68 – p. 2
Figure 2: Number of individuals imported from different countries from 168 consignments across 2018 and 2019.
Groups are Actinopterygii (finfish, blue), Scleractinia (stony corals, pink) and Others (yellow).
Marine Ornamental Fishes

135 consignments contained marine finfish, within which were 738 species of finfish (class Actinopterygii)
belonging to 235 genera and 56 families. Of these families, twelve had 1000 or more individuals recorded from
the imports (Figure3). Pomacentridae (damselfishes and clownfishes) were by far the most common family, with
> 21,000 individuals imported (Figure 3). The top two species, Chromis viridis (blue-green chromis)
and Amphiprion ocellaris (common clownfish) are both pomacentrids, and comprised 15.6% of trade by number
of individuals, combined (Table 1).

CoP19 Inf. 68 – p. 3
Figure 3: Marine finfish families with over 1,000 individuals imported from 135 consignments across 2018 and
2019, coloured by order.
Table 1: Species comprising 50% of trade in marine finfish (class Actinopterygii) by number of individuals
imported from 135 consignments across 2018 and 2019.

Species Family Number of Cumulative Cumulative

individuals number percentage

Chromis viridis Pomacentridae 7669 7669 10.1

Amphiprion ocellaris Pomacentridae 4130 11799 15.6

Pterapogon kauderni Apogonidae 2291 14090 18.6

Anisotremus spp. Haemulidae 2000 16090 21.3

Chrysiptera parasema Pomacentridae 1877 17967 23.7

Synchiropus splendidus Callionymidae 1710 19677 26.0

Valenciennea puellaris Gobiidae 1528 21205 28.0

Pseudanthias squamipinnis Serranidae 1398 22603 29.9

Labroides dimidiatus Labridae 1306 23909 31.6

Anthias spp. Serranidae 1252 25161 33.3

Valenciennea strigata Gobiidae 1241 26402 34.9

Zebrasoma flavescens Acanthuridae 1214 27616 36.5

Nemateleotris magnifica Microdesmidae 1052 28668 37.9

Paracanthurus hepatus Acanthuridae 872 29540 39.0

CoP19 Inf. 68 – p. 4
 Species Family Number of Cumulative Cumulative
individuals number percentage

Gramma loreto Grammatidae 849 30389 40.2

Chrysiptera hemicyanea Pomacentridae 831 31220 41.3

Valenciennea sexguttata Gobiidae 824 32044 42.3

Macropharyngodon bipartitus Labridae 822 32866 43.4

Centropyge bispinosa Pomacanthidae 762 33628 44.4

Siganus vulpinus Siganidae 728 34356 45.4

Pseudocheilinus hexataenia Labridae 700 35056 46.3

Chrysiptera springeri Pomacentridae 655 35711 47.2

Dascyllus trimaculatus Pomacentridae 623 36334 48.0

Halichoeres chrysus Labridae 615 36949 48.8

Chrysiptera cyanea Pomacentridae 598 37547 49.6

Only 3 consignments indicated that they included fish which were captive-bred. The species documented as
captive-bred were clownfishes (Amphiprion spp. and Premnas bicelatus), Pseudochromis spp. and neon
gobies (Elactinus spp.) (Table 1). The greatest number of individuals of a species labelled as captive-bred,
was 422 for the common clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris). However, this comprised only 10% of all common
clownfish imported.

Table 2: Cultured species, including number of individuals marked as captive bred from 135 consignments
across 2018 and 2019.

Species Family Number of individuals

Amphiprion ocellaris Pomacentridae 422

Amphiprion percula Pomacentridae 46

Elacatinus macrodon Gobiidae 32

Pseudochromis fridmani Pseudochromidae 24

Pseudochromis aldabraensis Pseudochromidae 23

Elacatinus puncticulatus Gobiidae 18

Amphiprion clarkii Pomacentridae 14

CoP19 Inf. 68 – p. 5
 Premnas biaculeatus Pomacentridae 14

Elacatinus oceanops Gobiidae 12

Amphiprion frenatus Pomacentridae 6

Conservation status of marine ornamental fish in trade

Most (n = 529) marine finfish species imported into UK were listed as Least Concern (LC) by the IUCN.
Table 3: Number of species by IUCN listing. EN = Endangered, VU = Vulnerable, NT = Near Threatened, LC =
Least Concern, DD = Data Deficient, NA = No IUCN listing assigned.

IUCN listing Number of species

EN 1

VU 6

NT 3

LC 529

DD 24

NA 175

Only one species was listed as endangered (EN), the Banggai cardinalfish (Pterapogon kauderni). Of the 2,291
Banggai cardinalfish individuals imported, most (n = 2215, 97%) came from Thailand and Indonesia, with a small
number (n = 75, 3%) originating from Sri Lanka (Figure 4). As they are endemic to Banggai Islands, Indonesia,
Pterapogon kauderni originating from Sri Lanka and Thailand are likely to be captive-bred, though this was not
stated on the import documentation.

CoP19 Inf. 68 – p. 6
 Figure
4: Number of individuals of endangered Banggai cardinalfish (Pterapogon kauderni) from 135 consignments
across 2018 and 2019, by country of origin.

Six species were listed as Vulnerable (VU) (Figure 5). These were the tiger tail seahorse (Hippocampus comes),
which originated entirely from Sri Lanka; the harlequin filefish (Oxymonacanthus longirostris), originating largely
from Fiji (n = 55, 75%); the ternate damselfish (Amblyglyphidodon ternatensis) from the Philippines (n = 6); black
wrasse (Halichoeres adustus), mostly from Indonesia (n = 7) but also from the Maldives (n = 2); the masked
goby (Coryphopterus personatus) from the Dominican Republic (n = 3), and the half-black mimic surgeonfish
(Acanthurus chronixis) from the Philippines (n = 3) and Indonesia (n = 2) (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Number of individuals of vulnerable marine finfish species imported into the UK from 135 consignments
across 2018 and 2019, coloured by country of origin.
Methods

A sample of paper copies of shipment documents for “ornamental aquatics” consignments imported into the UK
in the years 2018 and 2019 were obtained from London Heathrow Airport, the UK’s largest Border Control Post
(BCP). Shipment document packs, including health certificates, invoices, packing lists and a CITES permit if
required, were scanned and species-level information from the packing lists/invoices manually digitized. One

CoP19 Inf. 68 – p. 7
hundred and sixty-eight (168) consignments (records) of marine species were digitized, 141 records from 2019
and 27 from 2018. While the sample used in the study does not enable an estimation of the total volume of trade
imported into the UK, it does illustrate general trends which are representative of what the UK is importing.

Species names were validated using the worrms and taxize packages for R (version 4.1.2). Where necessary,
species names were also validated manually using the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS). Taxonomic
ranks and aquatic ecosystems were also validated using the worrms package. IUCN listings were acquired using
the rredlist package.

Marine species were defined as inhabiting strictly marine environments (i.e. not brackish waters). Finfish were
defined as those belonging to the class Actinopterygii.

Selected Publications

Rhyne, A.L., Tlusty, M.F., Schofield, P.J., Kaufman, L.E.S., Morris Jr, J.A. and Bruckner, A.W., 2012. Revealing
the appetite of the marine aquarium fish trade: the volume and biodiversity of fish imported into the United
States. PloS one, 7(5), p.e35808.

Rhyne, A.L., Tlusty, M.F., Szczebak, J.T. and Holmberg, R.J., 2017. Expanding our understanding of the trade in
marine aquarium animals. PeerJ, 5, p.e2949.

Contact

As one of the authors of this Information Document, Dr Joanna Murray, from Cefas is available to provide further
feedback on any questions you may have in person at CoP19 or contacted by email
[Link]@[Link].

CoP19 Inf. 68 – p. 8