Aquariums:
The Dark Hobby
Once you’ve watched the movie, you’ll never look at a fish tank the same way again.
- Lois Alter Mark
Aquariums: The Dark Hobby
Aquariums: The Dark Hobby is an expose of the devastation to species and reefs caused by the aquarium trade. This adventurous saga follows a band of Hawaiian Elders, conservationists and scientists who stop at nothing to protect marine wildlife. They file a lawsuit against the State of Hawai'i to halt the collection of reef creatures, a fight that goes all the way to the Supreme Court.
Reviews
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An excellent film produced by former Sea Shepherd directors Snorkel Bob, Ben Zuckerman... on the destruction to reef fishes caused by the Aquarium Industry.
Captain Paul Watson
Sea Shepard Conservation Society -
Aquariums can be lovely, if you can stand the noise, smell and grim business of cleaning them or dealing with the deaths of the “pets” you confine in them.
Rogers Movie Nation
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The Dark Hobby is an important film that exposes a lucrative trade that is threatening some of our most biodiverse marine ecosystems.
Oceanic Preservation Society
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"The colorful fish in your home aquarium come at a heavy price to the environment."
SF Weekly
Nick Vernonin -
The Dark Hobby sounds like the name of a horror film with a gruesome murder, gut-wrenching gore, and destruction on a volatile level. Director Paula Fouce’s film is undeniably all of those things, just not in the way you think. Instead, this documentary focuses on the destruction of Hawaii’s precious coral reefs and the cruel practices of the aquarium trade.
Film Threat
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It turns out that those home aquariums filled with gorgeous fish have a dirty secret: those fish have been dynamited or cyanided from their homes on the world’s reefs, traumatizing them and destroying the fragile eco-system.
Lois Alter Mark
Alliance of Women Film Reviewers
About the film
ALL THE PRETTY FISH AND THE PRICE PAID TO TANK THEM
The Hawai'ian Islands are ground zero for the aquarium trade who capture and traffic reef fish for hobbyists’ tanks, decimating the reef, ocean and earth’s oxygen. Native Hawai'ians, conservationists, scientists, aquarium fish collectors and breeders are locked in a controversy over the stunning “treasure of Hawai'i” – the ornamental fish.
The Hawai'i aquarium trade has been catching reef fish for U.S. and global hobby tanks for decades. There have been no catch limits, no limit on the number of catchers, and no constraints on rare, endemic or vanishing species. Fish advocates report that the number of fish has decreased drastically, affecting the hierarchy of marine wildlife, and believe removing fish from their natural habitat should be forbidden.
Reef-based tourism generates hundreds of millions in Hawai'i annually, and many Hawai'i residents want aquarium collecting banned.
Others make their living from catching and supplying exotic fish to hobbyists, and still others breed fish in captivity to fill U.S. and global demand.
The lucrative trade who depend on reef wildlife to populate the tanks, and to drive sales of tanks and paraphernalia resist any change to the supply chain of reef wildlife caught in the reef.
The Dark Hobby is an entertaining expose on this crisis, and the ongoing political struggle. At any given moment, 28 million fish are in the aquarium trade pipeline from point of capture to home hobbyist tank. They represent over 1800 species, and many die within a year of capture, generating even more demand.
Our understanding of the hierarchy of fish living on the reef is increasing. Current scientific research reveals that fish have much greater intelligence then previously known, including recognizing human faces, feeling pain, and making plans. The search for solutions continues. Will the fish be protected?
Crew
Paula Fouce
Producer, Director, Writer
Paula produced and directed No Asylum: The Untold Chapter of Anne Frank’s Story, (ro*co films) based on the recently discovered letters of Otto Frank, Anne Frank’s father. No Asylum was screened at the United Nations, Geneva by Cine–ONU. Academy Award winner, Maria Florio is Creative Producer.
Paula produced and co-directed with Academy Award nominee William Haugse (Hoop Dreams), Song of the Dunes: Search for the Original Gypsies; (PBS stations). She directed and produced Not in God’s Name: In Search of Tolerance with the Dalai Lama, (PBS stations); and authored the book, Not in God’s Name: Making Sense of Religious Conflict. Paula directed and produced Naked in Ashes, a critically acclaimed theatrical documentary on India’s yogis, edited by William Haugse. She produced and directed Origins of Yoga: Quest for the Spiritual, and co-authored the book, Shiva (1996, White Orchid Press).
Paula grew up in in Los Angeles in her family's historical movie palaces. Her grandfather and father were pioneers of Spanish language entertainment in the US, and two of the founders of Spanish International Network, now known as Univision. At Pitzer College, Claremont she studied in Nepal, then worked throughout the Himalayas and South Asia. Paula was Vice President and Director of KRCA, a Los Angeles TV station from 1990 -1997 (now under new management). She is President of Paradise Filmworks International and served as Co-Chair of the Southern Asian Art Council at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
William Haugse
Editor, Co-Producer, & Writer
In his editing career, Bill Haugse has been nominated for an Oscar for Hoop Dreams, and an Emmy for The Last Days of Kennedy and King. He has received the American Cinema Editors Eddie Award among many other prizes.
Sunset Story, an ITVS/PBS documentary was the winner of a special jury prize at the Tribeca Film Festival, & the Audience Award at the L A Film Festival, (PBS). Recent editing includes Naked in Ashes; a feature about Yogis in India, which according to the LA Times, was “beautifully crafted”; Stevie (Lions Gate), directed by Steve James; and Unprecedented, about the 2000 Florida presidential election.
Other works include Cattle Annie and Little Britches featuring Rod Steiger and Diane Lane and Paul’s Case starring Eric Roberts. He credits include scores of shorter films as director and editor, including Breakfast in Bed starring John Ritter. Bill edited with Orson Welles and John Cassavetes, and Bill is a member of the professional honorary ACE.
Tim Kettle
Editor, Co-Producer
Tim Kettle has worked in the entertainment field for over 40 years. He earned a Masters Graduate Degree from The University of Texas, Television and Film School and spent four years working with PBS in Texas. He has been a member of the Directors Guild of America, as a director, for over 30 years.
Tim has served as Producer, Director, Associate Director and Editor in Hollywood since 1980. Some of his shows include, That’s Incredible, Those Amazing Animals, In Search of…, Circus Of The Stars, The Academy Awards, Prime Time Emmys, Daytime Emmys, The People’s Choice Awards, The Kennedy Center Honors, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Comedy Central Roast, CNN Heroes, Dr Phil and Oprah Winfrey, BET Honors, Critics Choice, Psychic Chronicles, Home for the Holidays and many more.
His film producing credits include Not in God’s Name (PBS), Origins of Yoga, Naked in Ashes, theatrically released, and Song of the Dunes (PBS) and No Asylum.
Luciano Storti
Composer
Luciano Storti is an Italian-born, Award-Winning Composer. He was awarded a Swiss State Scholarship, obtained Diplomas in Pianoforte Performance from the Konstanz Music Conservatory, Germany and went on to graduate Magna Cum Laude in Film scoring & Songwriting at the renowned Berklee College of Music, Boston. After relocating to LA, Luciano studied contemporary composition under Daniel Kessner and Liviu Marinescu at Cal State Northridge, obtaining a Master of Music in Modern Classical Composition.
He has scored numerous films, including the multi-award winning underwater TV series Water Colours and The City under the Sea, for National Geographic Television. He scored the documentaries Song of the Dunes, Not in God’s Name, and The Dark Hobby, and the feature film, Cold Cabin. Other media includes trailers for all books in the acclaimed, New York Times best-selling series, The School for Good and Evil, by author and Filmmaker Soman Chainani, as well as many contributions to the promotional campaigns of many films.
Stephen Nemeth
Executive Producer
Stephen Nemeth formed and heads up Rhino Films, the independent film company that originated as a division of iconoclastic record label Rhino Records. He has produced and executive produced dozens of films including THE SESSIONS, C.O.G., FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS, WHY DO FOOLS FALL IN LOVE, RADIO FREE ALBEMUTH, SPACEMAN and the upcoming FEAR AND LOATHING IN ASPEN. Nemeth's documentary credits include DOGTOWN AND Z BOYS, WARDANCE, FUEL, ROBERT WILLIAMS MR. BITCHIN’, GOOD FORTUNE, LOGAN’S SYNDROME, KISS THE GROUND, 137 SHOTS and HIGHER LOVE. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and on the board of numerous non-profit organizations including Friends of the Earth and the International Documentary Association.
Maria Florio
Executive Producer
Producer/Director Maria Florio, President of EARTHWORKS FILMS, INC., has been an unstoppable force in the documentary world since BROKEN RAINBOW, the film which Maria co-directed and co-produced with Victoria Mudd that won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Her award-winning documentary, TIBET: CRY OF THE SNOW LION, had theatrical, domestic and international releases, and won numerous festivals. The film exposes the truth about the crisis Tibetans are facing at the hands of the Communist Chinese. BIG RIVER MAN, (2010), garnered four stars from the New York Times and won several awards at Sundance and other international festivals. Maria produced and Olivia Newton-John and Amazon John Easterling executive-produced. Directed by John Maringouin.
A lifelong activist, Maria co-produced MURDER SPIES & VOTING LIES, an expose on voting fraud, was Creative Consultant on PROJECT RETURN; and on NAKED IN ASHES and NOT IN GOD’S NAME for Paradise Filmworks Int. Maria co-produced/creative-produced THE LAST DAYS OF EXTRAORDINARY LIVES, and MAN UP AND GO, with Bacon/Murphy Films, DREADLOCK ROCK, and NO ASYLUM: The Untold Chapter of Anne Frank’s Story with Paradise Filmworks Int.
Benjamin Zuckerman
Co-Producer
Benjamin Zuckerman is an astrophysicist and an emeritus professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at UCLA. His work focuses on formation and evolution of planetary systems around various types of stars. He developed and taught a UCLA Honors course entitled "The 21st Century: Society, Environment, Ethics". Ben has co-edited six books; these include, "Human Population and the Environmental Crisis" (Jones & Bartlett 1995).
Ben has been a member of the Board of Directors of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and the Sierra Club and the Board of Advisors of the Wildlife Waystation. He has been awarded the Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy and Guggenheim Fellowship for Natural Sciences, US & Canada. Ben graduated from Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Michael X. Flores
Michael X. Flores has worked on several award-winning films since attending USC where he received a Master of Fine Arts in Cinema-Television Production. Michael was awarded the John Frankenheimer Directing Scholarship for merit in directing and the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts Entertainment Scholarship. He was also selected as a fellow in Film Independent’s Project: Involve, in which he was mentored by Jeffrey Blitz: director of the Academy-Award-nominated documentary Spellbound (2002). He edited the Student-EMMY ™ winning TV pilot, “Cost of Living” and wrote and directed an award-winning short film, Esperando (Waiting/Hoping). Michael worked as an assistant editor on Tamra Davis’s documentary Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child (2010), which premiered at Sundance; on One Lucky Elephant (2010), which premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival; and on First Position (2011), which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. He edited Nick Broomfield’s documentary, Sarah Palin: You Betcha! (2011), which premiered at Toronto International Film Festival; Sweet Talk (2012); Last Will & Testament (2012), executive produced by Roland Emmerich; and Justice for My Sister (2012) - Best Documentary at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival. He also worked on Tapia (2013), which premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival, and Harmontown (2014), which premiered at South By Southwest. He has also worked on several narrative shorts, music videos, and commercials.
George R. Pierce
Co-Producer
George R. Pierce was noted in Forbes as a Top-10 Financial Advisor in the United States. He has served as a former member of the Board of Directors for The Morris Foundation as well as The Gorillas in the Mist Foundation. A lifelong conservation and wildlife enthusiast, George lives in the Pacific Northwest.
Cast
Kimokeo Kapahulehua
Kimokeo Kapahulehua is one of Hawai'i's wisdom keepers who is a Kapuna elder with enormous knowledge of the land and its people. He was named the the 2004 Volunteer of the Year by the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation for his dedication in helping to preserve, protect and promote the Hawai'ian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary.
Founded in September 2015, Kimokeo Foundation was created by Native Hawai'ian, Kimokeo Kapahulehua, to create a lasting legacy that would preserve and perpetuate the Hawai'ian culture with today’s and future generations. The Foundation is centered around Kimokeo’s love for the people and culture of Hawai'i and the land and sea that surrounds his island home, Maui.
Kimokeo Kapahulehua has been known for his tireless efforts to preserve Hawai'ian culture, land and sea. For decades, he has served Maui’s communities and protected its land and forests. From Hawai'ian outrigger canoe paddling and voyaging, to revitalizing an ancient Hawai'ian fishpond to educating thousands of youth about Hawai'ian culture, to supporting cancer survivors, he has touched people’s hearts urging them to take the aloha they receive from him to share with others. After decades of volunteering for many organizations, Kimokeo decided to consolidate his passions into the Kimokeo Foundation, with a legacy of giving.
Robert Wintner
Robert Wintner is Snorkel Bob, Hawai'i’s largest reef outfitter. His five marine volumes show reef society and personalities, narrating conservation victories and politics. As Executive Director of the Snorkel Bob Foundation, he is dedicated to reef recovery and the global campaign to ban the aquarium trade; “It’s all one reef.”
Wintner’s twenty books include fiction and memoir, well reviewed, optioned for film rights and recognized for excellence. Reef photography rounds out the opus with five volumes on reef culture and characters of Palau, Hawai'i, the Great Reef, the Virgins, Fiji, Tahiti and Cuba. Wintner’s reef photography book, REEF LIBRE, An In-Depth Look at Cuban Reefs & The Last, Best Reefs in the World and REEF LIBRE, the Movie, capture this pivotal time, from the streets to the reefs. Dragon Walk (Skyhorse Publishing, NY, 2018) and Dragon Walk, The Movie, link reef health and politics in Indonesia, the Philippines and Hawai'i.
The sum of these parts comprises a reef conservationist with a gifted eye for composition, focus and insight. Wintner is heard across the Hawai'ian Islands and around the world.
His short fiction has appeared in Hawai'i Review (University of Hawai'i) and Sports Illustrated. His historical novel, In a Sweet Magnolia Time was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and a PEN/Faulkner Award. Los Angeles production companies optioned his sailing novel Whirlaway and the motorcycle adventure The Modern Outlaws for film rights.
Wintner lives on Maui with Anita, Cookie and Larry. His writing draws on real time experience, combining decades on the high seas and below the surface with a literary style honed to efficiency. Wintner’s latest novels are A California Closing, Where market value looks moxie in the eye, and all parties sign off, and Reefdog, an adventure romance of Hawai'i and Polynesia with fishy values. Robert Wintner is Executive Director of the Snorkel Bob Foundation and active in Hawai'i's conservation community, working diligently to protect Hawai'i's reefs.
Wilfred Kaupiko
Willy Kaupiko is the Mayor of Milolilii, the last fishing village on the Big Island of Hawai'i.
Growing up in Miloliʻi, Willy attended high school at Lahainaluna in the boarding program. After high school he served the United States for four years in Vietnam, and is a Veteran. He lived on Oahu and was a beach boy and life guard, he also paddled for the Waikiki Beach Boys. He later returned to Miloliʻi to help his parents with their business and raise his own family. Uncle Willy as many of the locals refer to him as is an avid ocean activist. Willy owns a refuse removal service and also hauls potable water.
He is an active member of the Hau’oli Kamana’o Church in Miloliʻi, and Willy continues to advocate for environmental and animal conservation causes that protect the precious natural resources of MiloliʻI village, especially his beloved ocean. He strongly believes that it is your kuleana to malama your place and to be grateful for all that you have been blessed with. As the Mayor of Milol’i, Willy always makes the effort to protect just causes and fights for what is right.
Kaimi Kaupiko is from the last Hawai'ian fishing village of Miloliʻi, where he works with youth teaching and leading educational programs for years. Kaimi keenly believes that these programs foster an environment that motivates and educates the future generations of children in Miloliʻi, and he seeks to provide educational opportunities for them. Kaimi believes that through correct access to quality education, the future generations of youngsters in Miloliʻi will prosper.
Miloliʻi is a vibrant thriving Hawai'ian fishing village with a healthy environment of rich marine resources and families with a strong identity, and pride in Hawai'ian culture. Kaimi works to provide Fishing Family Camps in which community families celebrate and practice traditional Hawai'ian fishing culture and marine resource stewardship. He and others established a Community-based Subsistence Fishing Area (CBSFA) in Miloli’i to improve sustainable management of marine resources including the traditional opelu fishing project, and marine monitoring.
Gail Grabowsky, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor and Director of the Environmental Studies program at Chaminade University in Honolulu. Gail has served as a member of the State Environmental Council and the Northwestern Hawai'ian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve Council. She has also been the associate director of the Pacific Symposium for Science and Sustainability. Gail has won several awards for teaching, research, community service, swimming, and outrigger canoe racing.
Her interests include developmental and evolutionary biology; invertebrate zoology, ecology, biomechanics and environmental science.
On Earth Day April 2007, Dr. Gail’s book “50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save Hawai’i” was published and released.
Ben Williamson
When he was seven, Ben Williamson made headlines as the winner of a catchphrase contest held by a local McDonald’s—the same fast-food chain that he would crusade against as an adult in PETA’s McCruelty campaign, which sparked hundreds of protests at McDonald’s restaurants.
As PETA’s senior international media director, Williamson works with major media outlets to launch PETA’s groundbreaking casework, including FOX News, the BBC, and The Washington Post.
Williamson’s op-eds have appeared in The Independent, the International Business Times, Newsweek, and USA Today, and he’s been interviewed by countless national and international English-language broadcasters, such as Al-Jazeera, the BBC, and CNN. Before joining PETA in 2011, the London native studied at the London School of Economics, where he re-established the university’s Vegetarian and Vegan Society. Ben is currently Programs Director at World Animal Protection USA.
Jessica Wooley
House of Representatives
Jessica Wooley earned her law degree from University California, Berkeley. Practicing law in Hawai'i, she began her commitment to public service as an attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Hawai'i under the AmeriCorps program. She created Access to Justice programs throughout the state making legal services more accessible to people in need.
In 2000, Jessica became Deputy Attorney General, representing the Clean Water, Drinking Water, and Wastewater Branches for the Department of Health. She focused on law enforcement, and prosecuted the state’s biggest environmental administrative enforcement cases. She also served as a member of the advisory group for the Northwest Hawai'ian Islands (Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument) where she sits as a Conservation member. In 2008, Jessica became a Hawai'i State House Representative, and served three terms. Governor Abercrombie asked Jessica to be Director of the Office of Environmental Quality Control (OEQC), where she served until the end of 2015. She is currently running again for the House of Representatives.
Jonathan Balcombe
Jonathan is an ethologist and author of the New York Times best-selling book What a Fish Knows. His other books include Second Nature, Pleasurable Kingdom, and The Exultant Ark. In addition to authoring books, he teaches a course in animal sentience for the Viridis Graduate Institute, and performs consulting and editing services for The Editorial Department, and for private clients. He lectures internationally on animal behavior and the human-animal relationship. Jonathan is the former Director of Animal Sentience with the Humane Society Institute for Science and Policy, and Department Chair for Animal Studies with Humane Society University, in Washington, DC. He has also served as Associate Editor of the journal Animal Sentience.
Jonathan was born in England, and has spent most of his adult life living in the United States and Canada. He has three biology degrees, including a PhD in ethology (the study of animal behavior) from the University of Tennessee, where he studied communication in bats. He has published over 60 scientific papers and book chapters on animal behavior and animal protection. He has worked for The Humane Society of the United States, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
Jonathan’s sixth book, on the lives of flies and the human-insect relationship will be released in 2020 by Penguin Books. In his spare time Jonathan enjoys biking, baking, birding, Bach, and trying to understand the squirrels on his deck.
Teresa Telecky
Teresa Telecky, Ph.D. is Vice President of the Wildlife Department for Humane Society International. She is an expert on the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and serves as the Executive Director and Vice President of the Species Survival Network, an international coalition of non-governmental environmental organizations committed to the promotion, enhancement and strict enforcement of CITES.
Telecky has authored or co-authored several published scientific papers on animal behavior and endocrinology, as well as numerous and technical reports of The HSI. Following a post-doctoral fellowship with the National Science Foundation and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science at the National Institute for Basic Biology in Okazaki Japan, Telecky specializes in the international wildlife trade.
Teresa Telecky wrote the Wild Bird Conservation Act that stopped wild bird trafficking for the pet trade.
Kealoha Pisciotta
Kealoha Pisciotta is the President of Mauna Kea Anaina Hou and is the spokesperson for the Mauna Kea Hui, the people and organizations who have been actively protecting Mauna Kea, the mountain volcano on Hawai'i, the Big Island, one of the most sacred sites in Native Hawai'ian culture now threatened by the construction of a Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT).
Kealoha founded the marine protection group Kai Palaoa in Hawai'i, and promotes the principles of Aloha Aina and Kapu Aloha to protect, conserve, and restore the abundance of the land and the ocean life through policy.
Keith Christie
Keith Christie shot footage around the world for The Dark Hobby. This reach is 70 miles south of the Cuban coast in the Gulf of Ana Maria. He went 130’ off the ledge in St. Croix, into downwelling with raging current on either side of Batu Balong, Indonesia, swept a mile out at The Blue Corner, Palau, into the night depths of Dumaguete, the Philippines, swept again in the Somo Somo Straits of Taveuni, Fiji and of course dove a few thousand times in Hawaii. He is known to capture the moment underwater, as The Dark Hobby shows.
Taylor Nicole Dean
Taylor Nicole Dean is a YouTube star and influencer, and was recently featured on VICE Documentaries. She has been called the Queen of the genre known as “PetTube.” Taylor is known for her love of animals and is an avid pet advocate boasting over two million followers. One of Taylor’s interests are fish, she is known for sharing her experiences keeping saltwater fish and has informed on the hazards it poses to reef wildlife.
Paul Cox
Underwater photographer Paul Cox is dedicated to preserving the great wonders beneath the ocean's surface. His work with Kary Jones-Cox features exquisite vistas of ocean reef wildlife. They focus on the South Kona Coast in Hawai'i and beyond through Atdarock Photography
