I think corals will also be affected as the demand for these amazingly beautiful creatures increases. Over here in my country I've seen huge amounts of corals being harvested from the local reefs to supply to the ever growing market demand. However the major setback of reefing in my country is the lack of interest in getting information on reefing before jumping into the hobby. People here just buy on impulse or the notion that "if my neighbour has a reef tank, I've got to have one too". I've seen the local LFS making tons of money from ignorant customers who suffered from massive die-offs in their tanks. These customers will just replenish everything and to face the same problem again a few weeks later.
I've started a mini reef club to try and educate these people but I guess patience and an open mind to learn seems to be missing from a lot of them. For those who listen, they have had successful tanks with minimum fatality rates and hopefully they will then pass on their knowledge to newcomers.
Boards like ReefSanctuary are good places for newcomers to acquire mass amount of knowledge before they jump into our hobby. How I wish they would make it a rule for those people in my country who want to start reefing, to attend a course on reefing (maybe for a month) before handing them the permit to allow them to begin.
For now, all I can do is to hang out at my local LFS and befriend their customers and hopefully make them understand the value of LIFE
