Live Reef Fish Trade

The live reef fish trade (LRFT) supplies coral-reef food fish, mainly groupers and the humphead (Napoleon) wrasse Cheilinus undulatus, alive to restaurants in Hong Kong and mainland China. Demand drives capture of high-value species at spawning aggregations, often with hookah diving and, illegally, with sodium cyanide that stuns fish and kills surrounding coral. The trade concentrates on Southeast Asian and Pacific reefs and has depleted slow-maturing target species; the humphead wrasse was listed on CITES Appendix II in 2004 to control export. Management combines size limits, aggregation-site protection, cyanide bans, and certification, but enforcement across dispersed small-scale supply chains is weak.