Austrailia outlaws coral harvesting

[MaryHM]

You can tell them what you want, but you don't always get it. My Indo coral supplier is EXCELLENT- healthiest corals I've ever seen out of there. The water in the bags is always clear, things are packed to perfection, couldn't ask for better animals. I have asked them not to fill with Goniopora or SPS (I don't like SPS from Indo because the flights are too long), and have even deducted money because of it. But it still happens on occasion- many times because it is necessary to make weight. When you have a supplier that does 99% of everything right, you don't drop them. Most other suppliers will fill your orders AND send you crap

 

[MaryHM]

Nick,

You are asking good questions, and if anyone flames you, they're a jerk!

I completely understand your point and in a perfect world that is the way it should be. However, here are the problems.


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Mary, I think if you really wanted to help the situation with the goniopora, you would advocate a restriction on numbers or even a ban on how many are brought into the US. Once you figure out what the missing piece is to keeping them alive and thriving, let the world know. Then the importing could begin.

To advocate a restriction or ban would mean getting the federal government involved. First, it is important to realize that there are NO long term survivability statistics for ANY coral or fish (I am currently working on a project that would rectify that). It's also important to realize that this coral does NOT have a serious mortality rate between the collector and the retailer. It's at the 6 month+ mark where things start to go awry. So to compile industry statistics would show that this is a viable species. It is a bad idea to approach the government and ask them to ban something that we have no hard statistics on. Many people are having success with this coral and new ideas about what they need to thrive have been popping up a lot in the last few months. If we get the government involved in banning something, it's just going to go downhill from there- they're going to want to ban everything. And say we do get it banned, and then figure out how to keep it. Getting a ban REVERSED is practically impossible.
So now you may be thinking, "Ok, forget a government ban, let's just work with the collectors and importers to get them to stop making it available". Problem there is that they make money off of it. 90% of the people in this industry are in it for the fast buck. Gonioporas are popular and widely available. (They are no where near being an endangered species

). I don't purposefully import any gonioporas except for the reds. People have EXCELLENT success rates with the reds long term. However, if I order 20 reds and they only have 10, they'll fill me with 10 other species

That's because they are so readily available.

Like I've stated before, I feel it is important to approach Goniopora as we did SPS 10 years ago. Make it available, and the technology will follow. Guaranteed. There is a strong possibility that the avenue I am taking with my Goni research is not one of the keys...there is also a strong possibility that a hobbyist in Kansas will figure out what that key is. Let's make sure that hobbyist has access to it.

 

[SPC]

Mary, You said that you order 20 reds and they only have 10, so they fill in with 10 other species. I guess I am a little naive here, are you saying that you cant tell them I only want what I order and dont send anything else. Is communication with your suppliers this poor? It sounds like they dictate how you run your business. I see this sort of thing at the LFS level where they order x and their supplier fills it with y, but I had no idea that this went on at the import level.
Steve

 

[Anonymous]

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[loosbrew]

after a glass of wine I can say this cant I...