The Marine Breeding Initiative was created as a tool to encourage marine aquaria hobbyists to get involved in the captive breeding of marine organisms. The MBI was designed with the help of leading experts in the breeding of marine ornamentals to be a standardized award system and database that can be easily adopted by aquarium societies and site owners to promote captive breeding amongst their members.
There are many pressures on todays tropical reef environments and the practice of captive breeding to reduce the need for wild caught specimens is one way we as hobbyists can reduce those pressures. The MBI creates a standardized model that uses a central database to share information between all MBI sites while rewarding and encouraging hobbyists to begin breeding and existing breeders to tackle more difficult species and try new techniques.