Global Trade in Coral
BobFenner at aol.com
BobFenner at aol.com
Sun Feb 27 23:02:08 EST 2000
In a message dated 2/25/00 5:06:08 AM Pacific Standard Time, edg at wcmc.org.uk
writes:
<< Subj: Global Trade in Coral
Date: 2/25/00 5:06:08 AM Pacific Standard Time
From: edg at wcmc.org.uk (Ed Green)
To: bobfenner at aol.com
Dear Bob
Thank you for posting the url to your review of the trade report, and for
your personnal perspective on it.
Obviously there is much in the details over we would disagree to no clear
conclusion.
<Let's' hash these out... if ever there was a forum... this certainly appears
to be it currently... Ivory tower, civil servants, folks hoping to join them,
hobbyists, culturists, extractors, folks with a parochial interest... What
don't we agree on?>
However I would reply to your review with a comment which applies not only to
the coral report, but to the subject of information on the aquarium trade as
a whole. It is the lack of quantitative data, or analyses based on
quantitative data, on aspects of the marine ornamental trade which means that
opinion is directed more by guesswork than fact.
If this eventually materialises in unnecessarily strigent restrictions on the
trade, and there appear to be many who believe that management authorities
are moving in this direction, then it would be to the detriment of the
hobbyists and collectors' livelihoods alike. I would illustrate this with two
criticisms which you levy at the coral trade report.
1. "These establishments [Quality Marine in the U.S. and Tropical Marine
Centre in the U.K] are inarguably the best of their kind, and receive much
better, larger livestock than the vast majority of marine livestock
wholesalers" - well if so how much smaller are the items received by lesser
traders? Until a similar number of corals are measured from other sources I
will stand by our measurements as being representative.
<Easily half to two-thirds less in weight and displacement... Order the
organisms yourself under a DBA and you'll discover this to be so... I have
spent the last 34 years in the ornamental aquatics trade... I will gladly
take you about (the InterZoo in May could open your eyes immediately...
www.interzoo.com>
2. "The calculated export value of live stony corals at $5 million U.S. for
all collecting countries is fallacious. Within the scope of even just my
travels to these countries and their collecting stations I assure you this
number is way too low". - well if so, what is the value of of the exports? We
present one way of calculating it, how would you calculate the value
differently?
<Probably an order of magnitude greater than this value... I know this to be
so not simply from inference (the number of tons, pieces back-figured times
the going rates per piece...) There are some suppliers that alone ship more
than this dollar equivalent... at the local level of income...>
In summary one should not base global assessments of issues such as this on
personal opinion.
<Sir, we are not delving in speculation here... simple fact>
I am quite prepared to compare our methods and conclusions against different
approaches but think that such comparison only stands up when the alternative
is also based on sound quantitative data.
Thanks,
Ed.
Dr. Edmund Green
Head, Marine and Coastal Programme
World Conservation Monitoring Centre
219 Huntingdon Road
Cambridge
CB3 0DL
United Kingdom
Tel: (44) 1223 277314
Fax: (44) 1223 277136
E mail: ed.green at wcmc.org.uk
http://www.wcmc.org.uk/marine
>>
<And I am agreeable to any further discourse on this subject, a review of
methodologies... and introducing you to my trade, in earnest.
Sir,
Robert (Bob) Fenner>
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