Chad Callan wakes up each morning these days on edge. He knows his decade-long effort to solve the mystery of how to breed the iconic Hawaiian yellow tang in captivity is getting close.
Very close.
But he also knows from experience that disaster looms at every turn for his young and vulnerable school of tiny aquarium fish.
"It’s a horrible feeling to walk through the door in the morning and peek over the tank and find out they’re dead," he says.
This time Callan is hopeful. He and his research team at Hawaii Pacific University’s Oceanic Institute in Waimanalo have never kept captive yellow tang larvae alive this long — 40 days on Monday — and it’s quite possible the most perilous stage of their young lives is behind them.
The progress is good news for Hawaii’s ornamental reef fishes and especially the yellow tang, which makes up nearly 80 percent of the state’s aquarium fish exports. It has long been at the middle of controversy, with fish-collecting divers and a $2 million aquarium industry on one side and conservationists and some underwater tour operators on the other.
No matter their stripes, however, nearly everyone is cheering for Callan.
If he can figure out how to rear the yellow tang in captivity and gear up production, most everyone will benefit. The Hawaii aquarium industry may find a steady and economical supply of yellow tangs without the expense of having to pluck them off the reef, while conservationists and snorkel guides can feel better about the possibility of greater fish numbers in the wild and healthier reefs.
In the meantime the controversy rages on. Just last year a handful of measures in the state Legislature sought a variety of restrictions against the aquarium trade — anywhere from a total ban on Hawaii fish collecting to tougher rules. The bills were either defeated or tabled.
Then Earthjustice filed suit against the state, seeking greater environmental oversight of reef-fish collecting. The lawsuit was rejected by a state district judge in what seemed to be an interpretation of the rules rather than a statement about the aquarium fishery or how it is managed by the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.
The complaint, which asks that the department be compelled to require each aquarium fish-collection permit applicant to go through the environmental review process, has been appealed to the state’s intermediate court, with arguments due this week. The suit was filed on behalf of four individuals, the Conservation Council for Hawaii, the Humane Society of the United States and the Center for Biological Diversity.
Earthjustice attorney Summer Kupau-Odo said the state gives out permits allowing unlimited reef fishing with no idea how much environmental damage is being caused. "Hundreds of thousands of fish are extracted from our waters every year," she said.
Some observers say that if Earthjustice wins it could cripple the aquarium industry — from environmental study costs alone.
That would be fine with Rene Umberger, a veteran scuba diver, scuba instructor and one of the individuals who is a party to the Earthjustice suit. She describes those who collect aquarium fish from the ocean as "reef rapers."
Umberger, who runs a small Maui nonprofit called For the Fishes, says she’s seen a noticeable drop in fish abundance on the reefs over several decades — and she heaps much of the blame on aquarium collectors.
"Today it’s common to swim over a reef and what abundance there is are gray fish, dark fish, black fish," she said. "What happened to the yellow fish? Once you know what to look for, it becomes really obvious."
According to the suit, the continued removal of aquarium fish will not only affect target species, but also have irreversible effects on components of the entire ecosystem. The removal of large numbers of herbivores, such as yellow tangs, can cause reef areas to be overrun with and smothered by algae, it says.
State officials counter that the aquarium fishery is doing fine. And, in fact, according to the latest study from DLNR, the abundance of aquarium fishes overall has swelled significantly over the past 14 years in West Hawaii, the state’s most popular reef fishing region.
What’s more, a dozen years after the state created 12 West Hawaii Fish Replenishment Areas, where fishing for reef species is closed, yellow tangs and several other surgeonfishes have grown in number in those protected areas, according to the 2013 report, while they have decreased by 21 percent in the open areas. The decline is largely due to an increase in the number of aquarium collectors.
Ron Tubbs, a collector, aquarium fish wholesaler and author of the Hawaii Tropical Saltwater Aquarium Fish Report website, says there are fewer than 100 divers across the state who have permits to collect tropical fish and that most of them are hardworking people who do an honest job, sometimes risking their lives diving to dangerous depths. Overall, he says, the industry is subject to the strictest laws of any state regulating the aquarium trade.
"From our perspective, we want to protect the ocean," he says. "We are the eyes and ears of the ocean. If someone is damaging ocean, we will be the first to report it."
Tubbs views the yellow tang and other local reef fish as ambassadors of Hawaii — as important to tourism as any slick agency ad.
"If you go to the mainland and you’re stuck in cold weather, you’re looking at that fish tank and you’re thinking about Hawaii," he says. "Tourists come here all the time to see the fish."
Smart by nature, the vast majority of ocean fish easily avoid capture, Tubbs says. The fact is, he says, the aquarium fishery has remained sustainable for 50 years, and those who are trying to shut the business down use science to twist and lie about the facts.
CALLAN TRIES to stay out of the politics. He’s too busy juggling Oceanic Institute aquaculture projects, including the yellow tang research.
For Callan the yellow tang is personal. A New Jersey native, he maintained aquariums all his life and even worked in aquarium stores.
He came to learn that while freshwater aquarium fish are reproduced in captivity, most of the marine fish cannot be, meaning they have to be harvested right off the reef. He decided early on that he wanted to pursue a career where he might one day figure out how to rear saltwater aquarium fish in tanks.
Unfortunately, there’s no money in it. Most of the big aquaculture research funding is for projects aimed at solving hunger problems. That’s true at the Oceanic Institute, where 90 percent of the research is on food species.
Which makes him the right person at the right time to figure out how to reproduce the yellow tang — research which, by the way, will more than likely apply to most other reef fishes.
When the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration provided initial funding 10 years ago, Callan knew he wasn’t going to solve the puzzle overnight.
"So many things can go wrong," he says.
The research is expensive, time-consuming and demanding. It requires seven-days-a-week attention year-round. He can’t travel without getting constant reports on the health of his saltwater charges.
In order to keep the young fish alive, Callan must maintain breeding populations of adult yellow tangs, as well as a variety of algae and zooplankton, along with backup capacity.
After Callan achieved a breakthrough technique last year allowing him to culture viable eggs in significant quantities and successfully rear the larvae through their critical first few weeks of life, the project won more money. The Hawaii Community Foundation and the Hawaii Tourism Authority contributed $35,000, while the Sea World/Busch Gardens Conservation Fund offered $8,000.
It’s enough to keep him going for another year.
Callan says newly hatched wild yellow tangs spend their larval stage floating around. At 60 days they’re finally big enough — somewhere between the size of a nickel and a quarter — to settle into the reef.
"Right now they’re the size of the date on the quarter," he says.
If Callan can usher his current crop of tiny fish beyond 60 days of life, they’re out of the woods — a feat will have been accomplished.
They reach adulthood in three to four years.
"It’s exciting," he says. "A lot of people are interested. If we can show they can be reproduced, it will be heard worldwide."
The next step — and it’s a key one — is figuring out just how to scale up production to the point where it can serve as a source for the aquarium industry and maybe even create replacement stock for Hawaii’s reefs.
It will take loads of cash, but for whoever’s willing to invest, it could be worth it.
With its solid, bright flash of lemony yellow, the yellow tang is an essential part of most aquariums. It is in high demand as one of the 10 most popular saltwater aquarium fishes in the world.
"If you figure 300,000 (yellow tang) are taken from the reef each year, at $20 apiece that would be $6 million. It could be a multimillion-dollar business."
