2026-03-18
33 分钟This is Planet Money from NPR.
A couple weeks ago Planet Money producer Luis Gallo and I found ourselves on a dark, glassy river in the middle of the Amazon rainforest.
We climbed into a small canoe.
After settling in a bit, we headed upriver.
And we're off.
We were here to investigate a change that's been happening in the worldwide multi-billion-dollar business of pretty little fish.
You know, those tropical fish you often see at the pet store, the neon-colored ones, the ones at Shimmer Lake Sequins?
Some of them actually come from the wild.
In fact, one of the world's most popular species of pet fish is caught right here in the Brazilian Amazon.
Our guide for the day is Valdiriz Cicada.
People call him Deco.
Deco says get ready for an aventura, an adventure, to see what we can catch.
Will you ask Deco just to tell us a little bit more about where we're going?
Our producer Luis, who speaks Portuguese, actually he speaks a lot of languages, was interpreting.
He's saying that we're going upriver to get a better sense of where the fish live, because they live in shallow water.
The river that we're on is called the Rio Negro, the Black River.
It's one of the main tributaries of the Amazon.
And for several months out of the year, the river level rises and floods the surrounding rainforests, creating this dense tropical swamp.
It's like we're in the middle of a forest, but the ground is water.
Totally flooded.