[Coral-List] illegal harvesting of coral

Don Baker reefpeace at yahoo.com
Sat Feb 21 20:24:20 EST 2009


Hi Lee,
 
Interesting article!  BUT...what I am more concerned with is the Philippine side of this event, whereas, "who" allowed this to take place???   Forty tons of coral is no small amount to be 'overlooked' during the collection, cleaning, drying phases of this process.  I know the process as I used to do this for dry/cured aquarium use only corals back in the 1970s on Guam; prior to Guam law preventing collection and even issued limited collection permits. I collected red organ pipe coral, fire and blue corals as they retained some color after curing. 
 
WHERE is the Philippine Government in all this???   Seems they are quite silent pending heads rolling from some dept. as this case goes forth in the US.  I am sure the German will name names...and agencies.
 
Cheers from Zamboanga,
Don
 
 


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]

--- On Sat, 2/21/09, Lee Goldman <coralfarmguam at yahoo.com> wrote:

From: Lee Goldman <coralfarmguam at yahoo.com>
Subject: [Coral-List] illegal harvesting of coral
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Date: Saturday, February 21, 2009, 7:47 PM

Dear all,

A while back I took part of discussion about the merits of harvesting coral for
the aquarium trade and was reprimanded for using a figure that could not be
verified. I humbly agreed that in the best interest of science I was wrong to
use the figure (although I know it to be true, and used CITES to back it up, the
number was subjective so all of the proponents of the aquarium trade jumped on
me). Okay, let's get started with the verification process as well as
re-examine the concerns and issues with regards to corals within the aquarium
trade. For all who are interested, check this link out:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29222985/

While the weight of shipment does not often accurately describe the numbers of
corals, I am willing to bet this was quite a bit...and coming from an area in
the world where this can make an impact. Again, for those who feel there is no
problem, please understand that one area that represents a 'good' model
(used over and over again by the proponents as their model of best practice) is
rare these days and the demand obviously is not being met...

Please note that this is an owner of an aquarium/pet shop. Unfortunately, this
type of attitude and disregard for the reefs is not uncommon with end-user(s).

Please let me know if you are having trouble with this and I can send the
article directly to you.

Regards,

Lee Goldman




      
_______________________________________________
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