Global Fish Crisis | Still Waters, National Geographic Magazine: Live Reef Fish Restaurant in Guangzhou, China

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Indonesian reefs are being dynamited. Cyanide is used to kill entire reefs of fish so a Chinese customer can point to a fish in an aquarium and say “I’d like that one for dinner.” The idea is that they are getting the freshest fish imaginable, but the truth is that fish has taken a long journey, barely holding onto life in an antibiotic soup to get to that restaurant.  In this photograph a live blacktip grouper (not a threatened species) are available in the East Ocean Seafood Restaurant in Guangzhou, China. “The taste for fancy, novel, coral reef fish is spreading as wealth is spreading in mainland China,” says Yvonne Sadovy, a biologist at the University of Hong Kong. “Countries must limit export quotas, create protected areas, and encourage consumers to select less threatened species.”