House of Reps considers Coral Reef Bill

[Anonymous]

Article:

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>
House Considers Coral Reef Bill

WASHINGTON (AP) - Latin American and Caribbean countries who protect coral reef habitats would get debt relief under a bill passed by the House Tuesday.

Supporters of the measure, approved 382-32, said small countries in the region often exploit coral reefs and other marine habitats for money.

Rep. Mark Kirk, the bill's sponsor, said coral reefs are biologically rich ecosystems that are home to more than one-quarter of marine species. But Kirk noted that 58 percent of the world's coral reefs are in danger.

``They are disappearing at an alarming rate,'' the Illinois Republican said. ``At least 40 countries lack any marine protected areas for their coral reef systems.''

Under the House bill, the United States government would be authorized to credit countries for money spent to preserve coral reefs. The bill now goes to the Senate.

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The bill is H.R. 2272 and can be found at http://thomas.loc.gov

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[redneck]

LOL! Cheese is turning Republican! How the world has changed lately!

 

[Anonymous]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Redneck Cowboy:
<STRONG>LOL! Cheese is turning Republican! How the world has changed lately!</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'll vote republican when Rush Limbaugh & Pat Robertson go on TV wearing leather outfits, & sing "It's Raining Men" while dancing together. Deal?

 

[redneck]

Rush is tone-deaf, but when that happens, I'll become a democrat!

The things that appeal to you democrats amaze me! Is that how clinton got votes? LOL!

And now, back to our originally scheduled thread...

[ October 16, 2001: Message edited by: Redneck Cowboy ]

 

[SPC]

Great bill!

Steve

[ October 17, 2001: Message edited by: SPC ]

 

[Gatortailale1]

If our big brother government really wants to do something useful they should appoint some peeps to oversee the import industry. A ton of fish and critters are imported that do not survive in the aquarium tank. We as hobbyists know what survives and what dies. If this were done properly, there would be less harm to the reefs in the world, and we can still import the critters that wil survive.

We end up paying higher prices because importers send a ton of crap that doesn't survive and each dealer has to up the price to cover shipping costs.

Fianlly, we need more LFS to activly buy tank raised fish and corals. We the hobbyists can help by buying more tank raised and demand more tank raised. Further, support quality LFS that support this practice. Don't pay the cheap rate for fish and corals because you are just supporting the industry that rapes the reef and ships tons of junk that will not survive. (you know the kind that packs 30 tangs in a 30 gallon tank)

We need to stand up as a group and only buy critters that survive.

Contact your house member: http://www.house.gov/

Contact senator: http://www.senate.gov/

 

[Cappuccino Bay Aquarium]

Funny they { Congress},like all the "save the reefs "feel good doers...never actually determined what was harming the reefs, and what activities these third world countries,might do to actually have an effect on the health of the reefs? over harvesting of target species does not cause a reef to die? Taking all the red brain corals off a reef does not kill the remaining brown {and therefore not worth collecting} clipping all the colorfull sps hard corals does not kill the thousands of remaining brown acros? Yes, this Hobby can make the Reefs less colorful, {with the harvesting of the most color full animals}, but the vast majority of coral on any reef is dull brown and not ever even touched by the collectors? On the Reefs that are dying, something much larger than this hobby is effecting those reefs? It is my opinion,that "Feel good" measures by the Government only detract from those issues that might actually have an effect?...

 

[Anonymous]

I say outlaw the collection of reef fish and invertebrates and coral all together.

We can all go back to Neons and Tetras. Of course Cichlids will only be allowed to be kept by advanced freshwater hobbiest.

 

[Roach]

They just outlawed a couple species of caulevera(sp), the macroalgae. Someone in San Francisco(I think) decided to dump their tanks into the bay and it's caused all kinds of problems.