Man Charged with smuggling Coral in Oregon

Reef Aquarium & Tank Building Forum

Help Support Reef Aquarium & Tank Building Forum:

doublenut

doublenut

Active member
Joined
Oct 28, 2008
Messages
38
Location
kent,wa
This was interesting. I grew up in Montana Riding horses, dirt bikes, snowmobiles etc. Many of these hobbies you can no longer do becuase everything is being shut down due to enviormental concerns. I thought haveing a reef tank would be a fairly safe and eco friendly hobby. After reading the following article how long will it be before reefing will no longer be politically correct. Anyone have thoughts on this or has reef keeping always been not politically correct.
http://www.king5.com/localnews/environment/stories/NW_021309ENV-coral-smuggler-ks.12506c1f.html
 
having a reef tank is can be environmentally friendly with the right considerations for the creatures your keeping. and really, these reporters need to do their homework, it's the curio trade and the fact that they use the limestone from the reef to make roads, foundations and buildings in these countries that is causing the damage, not the legal harvesting of corals for the aquarium trade that is threatening the reefs(granted this was "illegal" harvesting).
furthermore, in 50 years or so, when the rate of coral death in the oceans has really started to exponentially increase, the reefs will be dependant on the heartier, healthier species propagated in captivity originally by hobbyist to reseed the natural reefs.

coral specimen propagated in captivity for say 10 generations are vastly stronger than their wild counterparts, because the captive specimen has only known immitation seawater with levels of salinity and temperature and ionic balance that are in constant flux compared to the ocean. so the change in salinity and temperature that might have killed the original wild colonies will be tolerated by the propagated specimens put under the same conditions.

so, in short, i'd say that when reefs are designed with a "green" motivation of using the least amount of energy with water pumps, skimmers, and lighting, and the needs of the creatures are truely considered, you reef can be very evironmentally friendly... just dont dump your caulerpa in the bay.
 
Last edited:
WTH

Where is the whole story? Give me a link.

Were these corals alive in sacs or dead in sacs?

I'm a little confused, I dont want the police or Treehuggers at my shop , We sell WILD corals alive and dead.

I dont think any are directly from the phillipines though, maybe thats what he did wrong.
 
ARedSeaAquarium said:
Where is the whole story? Give me a link.

Were these corals alive in sacs or dead in sacs?

I'm a little confused, I dont want the police or Treehuggers at my shop , We sell WILD corals alive and dead.

I dont think any are directly from the phillipines though, maybe thats what he did wrong.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure but I think ther's a treehugger around somewhere.
 
thats way better than the k5 report, thanks gas4544!

Holy cow, Steve(pci) was this the #15 and #10 reactor media we have been waiting for ....:eek:
2 and 2 together ,our #0 and #1 sacs of sand say made in Phillipines.

We are selling contraban??

Tideline where are you getting all your corals?

I may be wrong but pci doesnt sell any corals other than sand and crushed coral , it would be strange to find out that pci sand and reactor media comes from endangered speices.Or is it just that the sand was coral and that the sand cant come from the phillipines , if thats all this is about is sand, come on sand really, sand.

p.s - I read your response Mark from outer space, were you in space when you wrote that .:lol::lol::lol: see you sat:p rob
 
The articles about this have been very misleading. To start with, what was being "smuggled" was dead pieces of coral, not live corals or even complete coral skeletons. It was basically large pieces of crushed coral, to be used as reactor media. The reason it ended up being illegal is because of a technicality in the wording of the law and the sizes of the pieces being transported. It was basically coarse sand and dead coral skeleton pieces to be used as reactor media. The legal issue is that the pieces were too large. Both the shipper AND Pacific Coast Imports, which is where this shipment was going, had the proper permits. However, the sizes of the pieces of coral were too large. Had they been smaller, they wouldn't have fallen under CITES authority. Read this link for some of the actual truth in the matter.
http://www.pnwmas.org/forums/showthread.php?t=10475
 
Mike is right ..I have heard about this b4 it is a law on the sizes to be shipped..It was a law passed back when u could get live stuff ...It just has been buffered into the newer laws as a guide and to limit it!He was just tryin to save on the bloody shipping..that is what a big problem ..I refuse to pay the pshyco prices..
 
If you watch the full story, they clearly say that they were bagged full colonies, not stuff meant for reactor media.
 
Last edited:
All Wild Coral is not Illegal, only if the country (such as the Philippines) has laws stating the EXPORT is illegal. However, I have lived in the Philippines and anyone is allowed to go diving and bring back coral so long as you do not export it. Oh yeah or use explosives to harvest it.

you would think with all the people in this hobby there should be enough growers to support it. What really hurts are the people who buy it kill it and replace it by buying more. I was gulity of that when I was in california, they did not promote growing and fragging as it would be bad for business.
 
They use it to fish and get frags. Throw the stick in, wait for the boom, drive in and collect as much as you can.

Sometimes they get huge pieces loose this way and haul them up

Search YouTube and you can find videos on it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top