Go See Dory, Just Don’t Buy Dory (the fish)

Thirteen years ago, Pixar released what would become one of their biggest commercial and critical hits in Finding Nemo. So popular, that it saw a HUGE spike in sales of clown fish, the species of fish of the title character. The Humane Society of America, however, warns against a similar run on the Blue Tang, the species Dory is in the sequel, Finding Dory, due out this week.

There are similar Humane Society and ASPCA campaigns around Christmas regarding puppies and kittens as pets, even around Easter, advising against giving bunnies. Those are all perfectly valid campaigns, which I fully support. While they are domestic animals, pets aren't for everyone, and certainly not for every kid, and shouldn't be handed out as freely as "gifts."

But the Clown Fish and Blue Tang present an even more dire effect on ocean life. It's a delicate ecosystem underwater, relying on a strict balance. Just the mere act of harvesting the exotic fish can have devastating consequences on an ecosystem, let alone the removal of a huge population of fish from said ecosystem. To say nothing of the fact that wild, salt-water fish can rarely have their needs met in a home aquarium. No pun intended, but that can have a deep, wide spreading ripple effect across all marine life.

Enjoy the movie. I certainly will, I loved the first one. But leave the fish in the ocean. Get one of the many, many toys that Disney most likely has on the shelves right now instead.