Online marketplaces are now a key avenue for the unregulated trade of ornamental pets given the anonymous and immediate connections enabled to a wide customer base. These advantages for trade, however, have implications both for conservation and biosecurity with global monitoring identifying a wealth of prohibited and unregulated trade involving imperilled and high-risk non-native ornamental species. In acknowledgement of the role their social media platform has in supporting and furthering wildlife trade, Facebook enacted bans on the trade of imperilled species in 2018, with this extended to encompass all live animal trade in 2019. While these are important initiatives in reducing the unintentional facilitation of wildlife trade, their effectiveness is yet to be assessed, particularly from a long-term perspective given similar trade restrictions have merely temporarily supressed unregulated trade.
Here we evaluate the immediate and long-term impact of the two wildlife trade bans on domestic unregulated trade of freshwater ornamental fish in Australian-based Facebook groups through monitoring trade directly preceding the bans, immediately post bans, and three years thereon.