[Coral-List] Re: potential for exotic introductions from live rock

[Les Kaufman]

> to Austin and everybody-

Since Indo-pacific live rock is exported widely and there are live reef tank
enthusiasts at low as well as high latitudes, the risk of introduction for IP taxa
to the tropical Atlantic via this means would seem very high to me.  If fishes can
do it, and they have, certainly inverts can.  As far as I know there are no
precautions being taken to this effect at all.  Aquarists should be instructed to
NEVER put imported live rock into the wild, even if they think it is dead rock.
It should be bleached and dried before going anywhere other than in another
aquarium.

Les





> Message: 2
> Date: Thu, 30 Sep 2004 14:14:36 +1200
> From: "Austin Bowden-Kerby" <austin.bowden-kerby at fspi.org.fj>
> Subject: [Coral-List] RE: Coral-List Digest, Vol 15, Issue 27
> To: <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> Message-ID:
>         <JEEEIJEANKHHJCPIHCBPMENHCBAA.austin.bowden-kerby at fspi.org.fj>
> Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="Windows-1252"
>
> Hi Dean,
>
> Thanks for your posting on Coral List.  I sure hope these coral-eating worms
> don't make it into aquariums, especially in Florida or Hawaii or the like,
> and thereby get the chance of gaining a foothold in other regions.  Earlier
> this month, I had nightmarish visions of people in Florida frantically
> dumping their aquariums into the ocean, as their systems begin dying after
> the hurricanes and associated power outages.  So I hope that if the corals
> are exported, that they are clean, and I also hope that the consumers are
> well educated (maybe a licence or permit should be required?).  I hear that
> the larvae of flatworms can be very resistant, and the water corals are
> shipped in should therefore be destroyed, not added to the holding systems
> in the US.  Hopefully MAC standards will be dealing with these sorts of
> issues and with the possibility of introductions of things like these
> flatworms and (God forbid) crown of thorns starfish to the Caribbean.  It
> might be good to share these potential dangers with the exporter so that
> they can understand the importance of exporting clean and healthy stock.
>
> Take care,
>
> Austin
>
> Austin Bowden-Kerby, PhD
> Program Scientist, Coral Gardens Initiative
> Foundation of the Peoples of the South Pacific
> Counterpart International
> Suva, Fiji Islands
> Tel: (679) 331-2250
> Fax: (679) 331-2298
> austin.bowdenkerby at fspi.org.fj