Man Charged with smuggling Coral in Oregon

[Saltyfish]

in rural areas in the Philippines they still do this. This happens a lot in South East Asia. Not just for saltwater but for fresh water fish too.

The Asian Arowana is illegal to import into the USA because of this. The farmers would do this to stun the parents during spawning times. The male would release the fry from his mouth and the farmers net the fry. In most cases it would kill the parents rather then stun them.

 

[returnofsid]

Actually, if you read enough of all the articles, you'll find that it wasn't full colonies. It was pieces that were large enough to allow for identification of the family of SPS, but not full colonies. A lot of the stuff couldn't even be identified down to family type. CITES allows pieces up to a certain size. Some of the stuff imported was larger than that size, hence the crime.

 

[Saltyfish]

Actually, if you read enough of all the articles, you'll find that it wasn't full colonies. It was pieces that were large enough to allow for identification of the family of SPS, but not full colonies. A lot of the stuff couldn't even be identified down to family type. CITES allows pieces up to a certain size. Some of the stuff imported was larger than that size, hence the crime.

What? It had nothing to do with Size of the coral it had to do with Philippine Law States that No coral can be exported out of the Philippines because it was destroying their reef.

 

[noonesname124]

So this hobby has been popular for a few dozen years. Why are things still being taken out of the ocean anywyas?

This is like going to the forest and taking Rhododendrons.

 

[returnofsid]

This threads going in the same direction that one on another forum went, until more truthful information was provided by a very trustworthy source, other than the news media. If you read this link, http://www.pnwmas.org/forums/showthread.php?t=10475 , you'll get much more truthful information about what actually was going on. It has to do with the size of the pieces that were being shipped. Had they been small enough to NOT be recognized down to the Genus level, it would have been legal, under CITES agreements. CITES sets this size at 2-30mm. Anything larger than 30mm will get you in trouble. Because the pieces shipped were larger, therefor able to be recognized to the Genus level, it was illegal. The shipment was meant for PacificCoastImports to make this http://www.pacificcoastimports.com/...984P207Y200Y116Y133C73462810L9&c=31&kys=&pg=1 . Everyone needs to read more than just what the news media said about this. As I said to begin with, yes laws were broken, but it's being blown WAY out of proportion. News reports led people to believe that these were rare and LIVING corals. Not coral rubble. More understanding can be had of what actually took place, if ALL the appropriate links are read. People need to realize that this was NOT a coral shipment. It was a large grained sand shipment. Unfortunately, some of the sizes were so large that they fell under CITES rules.

 

[noonesname124]

I'm not really concerned with that news clip.

My question is, why are they importing anything? I've seen some of our forum members with super amazing tanks packed with corals, but LFS still buy from importers??!!

maybe it is a cost issue? its cheaper to get it out of the ocean rather than setting up big aqua culturing warehouses?

 

[returnofsid]

You might not be concerned with that news clip, but that's what this particular thread is about...lol. This particular situation is NOT about harvesting anything "living" from the ocean. It's dead coral skeletons of small sizes.

 

[noonesname124]

You might not be concerned with that news clip, but that's what this particular thread is about...lol. This particular situation is NOT about harvesting anything "living" from the ocean. It's dead coral skeletons of small sizes.

Oh I know, dead coral for reactor media. Which doesn't make a difference. This is exactly why there are many new fire bans in many WA parks now. The reason, not fire safety! They want the dead trees to go back to nature and not burnt There is also a ban on gathering firewood from most WA national parks.

The dead stuff in meant to be there to support future life.

 

[Myteemouse]

If anyone wants reactor media, bring some SPS to my house, I seem to be good at Killing them!
I will have all the media you want in weeks! LOL





J/K just had to lighten the mood!

 

[returnofsid]

the other side of that environmental argument is that the policy of "letting it be" was radically changed in National Parks after the fire that burned A LOT of Yellowstone and took almost a year to get under control, in the late 80s. Mighta been early 90s. That's when it was realized that intervention was needed, dead undergrowth should be cleared out and policies of "letting nature take it course" needed to be looked at and possibly changed. They were subsequently changed.

 

[trido]

dead coral for reactor media. Which doesn't make a difference.
The dead stuff in meant to be there to support future life.

Without the dead stuff in my calcium reactor. I cant have a beautiful reef. I dont kill enough coral to keep my reactor full. Someone has to harvest it and import it from somewhere. If your going to use that argument, your in the wrong hobby.

 

[returnofsid]

I would agree with Trido, UNLESS of course, you have a tank with absolutely nothing wild caught...fish, corals, other inverts....

It can be done, but pretty difficult.

Kinda reminds me of vegetarians that wear leather, or environmentalists that wipe their.....

 

[mnewby]

my question is this so now whats the gove do let all these great corals die so they can charge him why not send them to some group that can iether preserve them and then put them back in the philipen ocean when things permit or at least take them and seel them and use that money with in the goverment to stop bad people from damaging the inveroment the poor corals should have to suffer death as a result of this guy but then again i know how our gov work they wont do the right thing

 

[trido]

UNLESS of course, you have a tank with absolutely nothing wild caught...fish, corals, other inverts....

or live rock, or aragonite sand , that doesnt use electricity or require water changes. Every tiny aspect of our hobby has some sort of environmental impact or strain on a mechanical system or ecosystem of some sort.
We should all take up bird watching. :lol:

 

[Herefishyfishy]

The amount that is harvested for our hobby is minuscule compared to what is harvested for decoration and even that is a drop in the bucket compared to construction material. I think the guy broke the existing law and got caught. He screwed up. There is not a shortage of coral gravel and sand, but there are too many who are careless of the environment and a few who try to get around the regs. Our hobby is NOT the problem, perhaps even might be one of the solutions; as in the raising of awareness to why the reefs should be protected.

 

[returnofsid]

Mike, you're absolutely right. There's also all the programs that are re-introducing corals, that have been captive raised, back into the wild, and the programs for creating more artificial reef substrates, with sunken ships, concrete formations and such. These are all to enhance areas that have been damaged by storms, collection, fishing industries...etc. A lot of these programs have come a long way BECAUSE of advances made by hobbyists.

 

[jhampton_wsu]

This may seem like a silly question but if I have an sps or lps die it there something I can do with it so it can later be used beneficially in my aquarium (media reactor)? I'm kind of new at this and by no means am I trying to kill anything but I've made a couple of mistakes.

 

[returnofsid]

Save it, let it dry. Later it can be crushed up or broken into pieces. In a regular "media reactor" this won't be very beneficial. In a Calcium Reactor, the addition of cO2 drops the pH in the reactor, which allows the calcium carbonate to dissolve quickly. In your "media reactor" it probably won't dissolve unless your tank pH has dropped to an already dangerous level.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

If you so desire, save it and toss it in the CaRx reacter. Thats what the media is.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Just a comment I have regarding news stories that I figured I'd pass along...

There have been several times when I've been involved in things that have been picked up and reported on by the news media... both print and TV. In 100% of those cases, the media has never gotten the story right. And I'm not talking about just missing a few details... I mean it was just plain wrong or very misleading as a whole. Granted, some of that is because the sources of information may not be telling the whole truth because of their vested interest, but the media doesn't really do a bang up job of checking with other sources either.

I'm not making out the media to be a bunch of slacking liars because I know a few of them and they're good honest people just like us. (?) They're just out there doing their job as good as they can, with the resources (and time) they're given. But in my experience, it's still not enough to get it right.

Just something to keep in mind when reading so-called news...