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The Marine Aquarium
Council (MAC)
What is it? MAC is a joint industry
/ conservation initiative to ensure that those businesses applying
good standards in the collection, holding and handling of marine
livestock are easily identified and rewarded by the buying public.
It is intended that the fish sold through inspected and certified
businesses and chains will carry, a yet to be designed, logo.
As consumers (in which is included the aquarium keeping hobbyist)
become "greener" in their outlook, the industry will be able to
gain strength from the scheme as it employs independent certifying
experts to police the scheme.
Who's involved? At the moment industry and conservation groups from the USA, Europe and the Far East have been involved in developing the Certification scheme. However if you've not been involved, that does not mean you have been excluded. Clearly there are gaps e.g. countries in the Pacific, Africa and the Caribbean which export marine fish and a number of importing countries such as Germany and Japan which are notable by their absence. The initial group is not exclusive, indeed the more representatives from around the world the better. Where's it got to? WWF US were in the van
of this initiative and have secured funds from the Packard Foundation
who are a charitable organisation based in California with a particular
interest in Far Eastern issues and the World Bank. An executive,
Paul Holthus, has been employed to take this initiative forward.
This will happen with trial runs in a number of locations to see
if the outline that has been drafted is practical. The job will
then be to get as many supply chains involved as possible.
What will it cost? This is not entirely clear at the moment. In the long term industry will have to fund the fund certification process and a secretariat/executive function. The inspections will be undertaken by specialised expert companies. For more details visit the MAC website at www.aquariumcouncil.org
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