[Coral-List] Aquacultured Corals?

Don Baker reefpeace at yahoo.com
Sat Feb 16 17:42:40 EST 2008


Hello All:

In November 2006, I attended the KL  Convention Centre, Malaysia, Aqua-Fair and so noted what was being  addressed as "Aquacultured Corals" - from Singapore and KL, Malaysia suppliers.

What is happening?  Eight to 10 inch live coral branches are simply being snapped off 'mother corals' from the wild and  glued to artificial bases and coined immediately as 'cultured.'   And then we hear of hundreds of 'aquacultured corals' landing in Canada each week?   I would question this as there are only a few real & present coral farms operating.  Indonesia?  They do the above method but in the field...and within only a few weeks they ship them out as 'cultured.'

I strongly support MAC to address this issue and nail the suppliers and shippers as the outfits that are truly trying to culture live corals are seriously and economically sidelined....as in Me for one....that is starting up a farm in Sabah, Malaysia!  We intend to use larvae settlement on the annual July spawns to culture our own 'mother colonies' in which we will nurture until we can viably obtain cuttings and fragment branches for F2.  Our Bread & Butter while we wait for growth will be other species.

These same Asian outfits are also coloring their corals, whereas, I saw bright red, pink, orange Acropora.  

I think we all need to address this feature as well guys!

Don Baker


Alternate Email: donbjr95 at hotmail.com

"Dedication and motivated direction in achieving specific goals related to the care and protection of living things is not necessarily a guaranteed formula for success.  Success is, more often than not, a direct result of a person’s passion in addition to the above formula." [Don Baker, Marine Conservationist/Activist, 1998]
       
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