[greenbean36191]

This certainly takes us into the realm of informed opinion again rather than hard fact, but if the current trends in the hobby continue I don't believe it will provide any real conservation value. In a best case scenario I think it's simply a way to preserve corals to show our grandchildren what we messed up for them.

For several reason, the animals in the hobby are essentially dead ends for conservation. They aren't suitable for restoring reefs. One big reason is the possibility of introduced pathogen prevents animals from being suitable for reintroduction once they've entered the trade and especially after they've been kept in mixed tanks.

Another big reason is the lack of diversity. You really can't understate the importance of diversity in preserving ecosystems. Species diversity is important in preserving ecosystem function, but the trouble is that we really don't have a grasp on what the minimum level of diversity is to preserve that functionality. In the hobby we only see a tiny fraction of the diversity of the reefs and of that tiny fraction, the majority can't be propagated long-term in captivity. If we were to lose our supply of wild specimens in the near future the species diversity in the hobby would drop drastically. It's extremely unlikely that we would be able to re-establish a functioning ecosystem with even the current level of diversity available in the hobby, much less a reduced level.

Another diversity problem is the lack of genetic diversity. One big thing that has to be considered in long-term conservation plans is genetic diversity, which is important for adapting to changes. It's going to be especially important in the near future. As a general rule you need to start with at least 50 genetically distinct, reproductive individuals to preserve enough genetic diversity to give a species long term chances of survival. There are probably few species in the hobby that we can say that for since there's so much asexual propagation done and so much inbreeding with captive fish. There may be thousands of a given species, but most can be traced back to only a few original individuals.

The really big question for reintroduction though is if conditions get so bad that wild corals die off where do we reintroduce the captive ones?

There's also been a huge push within the hobby over the past decade or so to reduce the impact on wild reefs by propagating corals at home. The problem is that this approach doesn't address the economics behind collecting. It removes our demand from the reefs but doesn't replace it with anything that produces equal value for the collectors. There are plenty of more distructive industries like coral mining that are ready to fill that void. We need to replace current collecting practices with equally valuable industries that use the reef more responsibly.

Also, besides our direct impacts we're huge contributors to environmental change. We use huge amounts of electricity to run our tanks. Even though some people like myself can say that all of our electricity comes from nuclear or hydro, we still keep animals and rock that's been flown thousands of miles on one of the most polluting forms of transportation we have.

Ultimately if the hobby wants to have any conservation value we need to make a few big changes:
1) Close the lifecycle of the animals we keep. That means sexual reproduction from large starting populations to preserve diversity.
2) Reduce our indirect impact by more efficient equipment, better power sources, and cleaner shipping methods.
3) Promote in situ aquaculture. We need to get away from the idea that if we stop demanding goods from the reef people will stop collecting them. Instead we need to provide a market for animals that are produced sustainably while still giving the collectors jobs.