[Coral-List] Marine Life Certifications - Farmed Corals
Todd Barber
reefball at reefball.com
Thu Feb 28 07:29:18 EST 2008
This answer is quite simple and our Foundation has been advocating it for
years. All countries should ban any aquarium species that can be
demonstrated to be aquacultured by 3 or more private interests.
This way, there would be no competition for raised (fish or corals) from
wild sources so the market would develop a fair price. A great example is
the "Nemo" fish (clown fishes)....all can be fully reared in captivity but
wild sources still account for the bulk of the market...why? It is cheaper
to pay 10 cents for collection and a buck to ship it even if 10% die in
shipping than to raise a fish that costs $5 bucks in food and electricity.
Same can be said for corals and most other marine animals. For those that
cannot yet be raised fully, we could put in import taxes on wild caught
according to the level of aquaculture. For example, if a fish could be
captured as wild larvae (not adult fish) and tank raised to market size then
there might be (for example) a $5/fish tax on that wild caught species.
The point is then there would be market rewards for those that learned to
supply the market without destroying the wild stocks (kinda like we give
drug makers temporary patents to encourage new drug development).
This scheme also does not "over night" destroy livelihoods and in fact might
foster additional technological markets for developing countries as
aquaculture is well suited (once the initial science is developed) for low
labor cost producers.
Thanks,
Todd R. Barber
Chairman, Reef Ball Foundation
252-353-9094
Skype name: toddbarber
Cell Phone 941-720-7549
3305 Edwards Court
Greenville, NC 27858
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Don Baker" <reefpeace at yahoo.com>
To: <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2008 2:36 AM
Subject: [Coral-List] Marine Life Certifications - Farmed Corals
Hi Coral-L;
With the issues brought forth by the members of Coral-L on the matter of
coral farming....and the end of MAC.......
Can any Member suggest a ways and means to institute a more realistic and
viable Certifying entity - less having to fork out millions $$$ to open
hands of national wise guys and deep pocket politicians....transparent,
verifiable, and altruistic? Or am I dreaming here?
If its a "no go' - 'no way' = then lets end the international marine
aquarium trade once and for all. Lets support the ban of all marine life
imports of any nature from anywhere. If you want to have a marine aquarium
on Guam - you have only Guam to get the live stock as NO Imports allowed!!!
Believe it or not..this was put forth once to GovGuam people...but killed
off.
Any suggestions people?
Don Baker
Guam, USA
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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