[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

Inbox protected by ClearMyMail
www.ClearMyMail.com {c2509d95650d4b87a5a76fe30c468363}


----- 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]

---------------------------------
Looking for last minute shopping deals?  Find them fast with Yahoo! Search.
_______________________________________________
Coral-List mailing list
Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list 




More information about the Coral-List mailing list