The Asian arowana is a fish, a paradox, and an ongoing test of how commercial trade of an endangered animal could help conserve it.
The fish, once a common food fish for locals from Cambodia to Indonesia, shot to stardom among pet fish enthusiasts and was hunted to rarity in rivers and lakes. But fish breeders learned to rear Asian arowanas in muddy ponds. Every year, hundreds of thousands of farmed Asian arowanas are exported worldwide, many of them from Malaysia.
(Feature image: A golden Asian arowana. | Photo by Eric Chiang/Macaranga)
Little effort was invested into conserving wild Asian arowanas. Yet, in the last 8 years, Malaysian breeders and the government have been releasing farmed arowanas into the wild. They hope that if wild numbers increase and the fish is no longer endangered, they could export to the US, whose Endangered Species Act has banned imports of Asian arowana since 1976.
Could releasing farmed arowanas into lakes and river help conserve the species? YH Law and Tracy Keeling investigate in this two-part series.
Conserving Arowanas Needs More Than Releasing Fish – Part 1
March 12, 2024
