The Aquaria Trade and the indigenous people of Barcelos

The humic acid content
Of the various leaves that fall
Into the RIO NEGRO
Make the colouration rule
Of, strong dark tea colour
A blackwater river thus
And within this unique river
At least 600 plus

Fish aome big aome tiny
From floresta a village scene
Of indigenous hunters
Sailing forth
To hunt the Cardinal Tetra
Its iridescent blue
A shoal fish from the backwaters
That are popular and do

Earn a bunch of money
2 dollars a thousand they get
Which is really hardly anything
The margin seemingly Set
to give little to the locals
And much to the pet trade
Which is why they are now breeding them
And the indigenous wild fish fade
Out of need and market
Which is to be a shame
For those men employed in this simple life
May log forests Thats the claim

Its wrong of course to continue
Taking tetra’s from the wild
But if its done on a local scale
The effects are pretty mild
They then go off to Barcelos
And sometimes to Manaus
Where the bigger wholesaler boats dock
And really that is how

Its best that wild fish taken
Continue at this size
Shipping them all around the world
Ofcourse a percentage dies
The indigenous get very little
And it their boats all day
To find these shoals and capture them
For very little pay

Now the Aquaria Trade is breeding them
And the indigenous may find
Their fishing job is over
And that can blow their mind
Willingly they work for next to nothing
Everyday
Taking their 5 to 10 thousand
And earning their moderate pay

But if the West decides to cease
Then these men just may feel
The need is then to log the forests
The threat is very real
The work is hard but they may earn more
And the sustained trade will be
Ruined by the greed of men
Who really wants to see

A bigger profit coming
And this will surely be
Disastrous for the fishermen
Whose way of life will see
A massive change and environments
Will suffer thats for sure
The triple bottom line is something
Corporates ignore

Another soul tbats sought after
Is the Pipa toad
An amazing flat creative beast
With a miraculous code
How it breeds and creates its young
And again aquaria do
Like to get some of these toads
For apparently they screw

Big prices from the foreigners
So there is money to be made
But its presently done on a tiny scale
Its not an awful raid
On the wilderness creatures
Its so small scale and we
Must hope the indigenous continue
To work sustainably.

Its a really beautiful river
With a emerald forest around
And a huge array of creatures
The forests do abound
Its a very seasonable river
From October the depth is low
Right through till December
When the depths begin the grow

Thats when the glorious butterflies
Hover overhead
absorbing the mineral salts
And leave when they are fed
Their colours are amazing
A phenomena of scale
Seeing them together
Every shade of pale

The beautiful Boto Dolphin
A remarkably vocal beast
A life saver for villagers
Drowning they at least
If around can offer
Help and certainly
Have saved a lot of people
In dire straits
Apparently

Macaws and beautiful parrots
And rodents and monkeys appear
To live in true acceptance
Of each other
And its seems clear
NAtural ways of life exist
here
Its all as it should be
The river is the mother
And all feed adequately