u.s. considers coral ban!!!!

[tampasnooker]

it is not such a good thing for the exporting countries or for the reefs in those countries. Coastal villages need to make a small amount of money for their living expenses and school fees, it is not much but they need something. They rely totally on what resource they have to sell. When they can not sell small fish, corals, farmed corals, etc. the next option for them is to start selling their trees. I am in the Solomons now and it is terrible to see all of the logs and timber going out right now. Cut down the trees and the runoff kills reef, not just little bits here and there but huge tracts of reef. There is a new hotel development in town that wanted a new dock / warf and got approval to build it, of course they are very enviromentally aware using palm wood in construction, and giving lip service to their solar water heating and power generation but by building the little warf killed acres of reef filled with montipora digitata. The aquarium trade could never use as much digita as was killed in one small project. It is the same with the trees, if village people can make what they need by selling products collected from their reef they protect their trees, they do not want to sell them but when forced to make a choice between sending their children to school or saving their tree they choose the future of their children knowing that cutting down the trees is a bad thing. Taking the farming away from village growers is a bad thing for the reefs, aquarium collecting is one of the best things that can be done for the health of the reefs in rural village areas.

That's a powerful argument right there. People have to make a living somewhere. If their resources aren't managed better, they have to turn to others. It's likely that most don't understand what one does to the other. I should think that responsible coral harvest and mariculture would be more sustainable than lumber.

I also liked the idea of promoting aquacultured species by putting a higher tax on wild imports. It seems logical to me. Higher prices would slow the demand for wild specimens, and a quick look at FS boards shows there is plenty of variety for most of us already available.

 

[droblack]

Informative post AG. Would much rather the collection continue (with controls) and the trees be left in place. Seems that would have to be better than the alternatives.

One more thing on the climate change issue. The truth probably lies somewhere between the lies and extremes. The global warming doomsday theorists seem motivated more by feelings than just science, and the doubters and "nay" sayers have reacted to this by blindly declaring it is all a hoax. I am a scientist of sorts, and have looked very critically at the data I can get a hold of, and there are certainly many effects on the environment correlated to our progress. Significant changes, and changes that go beyond any of the natural cycles that we know of. Doesn't mean that my condo will be under water any time soon, at least I don't think so. Scuba diving here in South Florida has been a great eye opener, and talking with the old timers here, there has been undoubtably huge die offs of coral that directly correlate with development, farming, runoff, and increased acidity of the ocean. Come see the dead coral reefs for yourself. In some places many corals are doing okay, but even in protected areas like John Pennekamp Park, we see a lot of bleaching. Something is happening, and it is not just one thing.

 

[jaytizzle]

Something is happening, and it is not just one thing.

This is the best line of your whole post. It is absolutely true. Correlations over the span of modern human existence don't mean a darn thing. Are we having an impact? Probably. Are things different from what the "old timers" saw? You betcha. Does that mean anything? Not a lick.

That's the problem with correlations. If you aren't actually taking them all the way down to true and unbiased statistical analysis then they are nothing more than observations of apparent trends with no proof to back up your observations. To that effect - I doubt any of us here have made any significant unbiased statistical analysis on climate change data.

 

[Palancar]

Time to revive this thread and not because of Global Warming and other BS but for the root of the action being taken here and the end result that it will have on us as hobbyists. I am not crazy about having a permit for each coral I own and being regulated on what I can frag and trade. And the government is crazy enough to pursue us trading frags and let the real criminals do what ever they want because we are an easy target. So please make your voice head and maybe just maybe we can get our people in congress to listen to us.