[Coral-List] Saving the Reefs

[Jon Skrapits]

Fellow Listers,

Animals that we can financially benefit from are usually saved and become
abundant. i.e. Water Buffalo In fact, if we eat them they become even more
abundant. Chickens would have a rough time surviving if we(free market)
weren't protecting them. Putting the free market to work on sustaining the
industry through aquaculture is the way to go or it is at least a way to
save a few species from dying off or extinction. Why is the free market
spending money on aquaculture? We realize that coral is scarce and we need
to protect our livelihoods through regeneration and protection of the wild
corals. Maybe the government should be working with aquaculture facilities
to obtain animals and study them without harvesting wild specimens. What
about the gov. partnering with aquaculture facilities to see why corals
die? I see things that can happen good or bad to coral in a day that takes
decades to show itself in the wild. Has the ban on Staghorn and Elkhorn
Coral in the Keys really helped it to rebound? Why would  we think that
banning others would bring them back? How well would corn fields do if left
untouched?

Leaving the corals in the ocean through regulation will only ensure the
decline and death of corals. It will also enable the government to grow
larger and get involved in areas that is has no expertise in. Do we really
need our tremendously wasteful government to steping into this? Especially
during the current economic turmoil we are facing. We are here because of
people not working together to develop strategies. The free market will
always do better than the government with maybe the military being an
exception and even that is too expensive and wasteful at this point. This
proposed regulation will also ensure the loss of many jobs in FL, the US,
and affect Pacific Island Communities. These people are experts at
controlling and harvesting within limits just as Native Americans were
before our government came and ruined that. Do you think those indigenous
people would deplete their reef for a few dollars if it means they cannot
harvest fish to eat and survive? They would stop the aquarium trade
harvesting in a second if it endangered them. How could our government know
what they need to survive. They have been doing just fine without us and
our overbearing parent the US Government.

-- 
Thanks,