UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre

Ocean to Aquarium
Introduction Press Release Ocean To Aquarium Images Report


The Marine Aquarium Trade Worldwide

Present status and future conservation

“The first comprehensive summary of the global marine aquarium trade”

The definitive overview of the status of the world’s aquarium trade from the authors of the award winning,
globally renowned World Atlas of Coral Reefs

UNEP-WCMC is creating a report, which will summarise and analyse data provided by the aquarium trade industry itself to assess the global status of the marine aquarium trade.

Fully illustrated, it the first report of its kind to make use of the Global Marine Aquarium Database, a freely available source of information on the global aquarium industry, set up by the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre in collaboration with the Marine Aquarium Council and members of trade associations. The database contains over 100, 000 records inputted from sale invoices provided by 51 wholesale export and import companies including many industry leaders, and 4 national management authorities.

Fish facts In 1997 a total of 1 200 tons of coral was traded internationally, with 56 percent imported by the USA and 15 percent by the European Union. Approximately half of this was live coral or aquarium; a tenfold increase on the amount of live coral traded in the late 1980s.

ISBN 92 807 2344 8 Download PDF documents here