The blue surgeonfish (Paracanthurus hepatus ), the main species in the latest Disney-Pixar hit movie, the spin off Finding Dory , could end up being the victim of its own success, as happened to the clownfish ( Amphiprioninae ) after the premiere of the film Finding Nemo , whose release in 2003 led to a considerable increase in the demand for clownfish in pet stores , putting their conservation at risk.
An effect that, curiously, went completely against the environmental message that the creators of the film intended to convey: Nemo should live free in his habitat, and not in the aquarium of a dentist’s office in Sydney.
Nor should we forget that this increase in the catches of clownfish in their natural environment has been coupled with the harmful effects of global warming – with the corresponding increase in the average temperature and acidity of the waters – which, in itself , puts coral reefs in check.
Karen Burke da Silva, a biodiversity and conservation expert at the Australian University of Flinders, as well as a co-founder of the Saving Nemo conservation project, explained to The Washington Post that more than a million clownfish are caught each year from coral reefs to end their days in private aquariums – the United States is the destination of 400,000 of them. “Clownfish have become locally extinct in the Philippines and in parts of Thailand and Sri Lanka,” lamented Burke da Silva.
Against this background, it is not surprising that conservationists fear the worst in the case of the blue surgeonfish , which is to become fashionable as a pet after the assured success of the film of the sympathetic and forgetful Dory.
And it is that from the University of Macquarie (Sydney), the ecologist Culum Brown warned, in statements to the website of the US radio NPR, that Paracanthurus hepatus is already a species “threatened” by illegal fishing . In addition, he pointed out that we should take into account that the blue surgeonfish performs a very important function in coral reefs, since, by eating the algae, it is carrying out a work to protect the habitat.
For her part, actress Ellen DeGeneres, who voices Dory in the English version of the film, Disney-Pixar and environmental groups have joined in a campaign to make a public appeal to help protect Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. and the marine species that inhabit it. Here’s the video, titled Remember the Reef :
