And although the industry worries about a backlash, some believe the opposite will happen. The film could inspire children to nag their parents for "Nemos" of their own, sparking a boomlet in the saltwater aquarium hobby, said John Brandt, legislative representative for the Marine Aquarium Societies of North America, the umbrella body for hobbyists.
Sales of Dalmatian puppies rose after Disney's 1996 release of its live-action version of "101 Dalmatians." Anticipating a similar reaction, Paul Holthus, executive director of the Marine Aquarium Council, said, "It's important that this demand is met with marine life that's been harvested from the sea or captive-bred in a manner safe for both the fish and the environment."
Yet some fish trade veterans doubt the Marine Aquarium Council efforts will make a difference in the way the industry operates.
"A lot of people have serious concerns that MAC amounts to little more than greenwashing of business-as-usual in the aquarium trade," said John Tullock, founder of the American Marinelife Dealers Assn. and author of "Natural Reef Aquariums," a respected hobby manual.
Tullock, who has left the AMDA and now objects to collecting tropical fish, sees "Finding Nemo" as helping to make a case on the animals' behalf.
"I am pleased to see that the issue of taking wild fish off coral reefs to decorate dentists' offices is getting some well-deserved attention," he said.
Although there is wide consensus that coral reef habitats are in crisis worldwide, how much damage is inflicted by the aquarium trade is a source of debate even among marine biologists.
"The major threats are overfishing for food, which has destabilized whole reef systems; global warming, which kills corals directly; and in coastal areas, [from] pollution and sedimentation," said Gregor Hodgson, a UCLA marine ecologist and director of the Reef Check global coral reef monitoring program. "In comparison to these threats, the marine aquarium trade is a small problem."
Whether "Finding Nemo" will focus attention on the plight of coral reefs and their inhabitants remains to be seen, Hodgson said. But as pet-store owner Mitch Gibbs of Bowling Green, Ky., put it: " 'Bambi' did not stop deer hunting."
