[Fwd: no danger for reefs thanks to CITES]

[Don McAllister]

>  Then I will also address coral
> and reef protection elsewhere in the world. No reason to worry, we have
> CITES!
>

Helmut has a point in his pointed message!  Major causes of coral reef losses
are climate warming, eutrophication, and sedimenation plus others Helmut
mentions in the tropics and mobile fishing gear in cooler areas of the globe.

Secondly CITES regulations can be a pain to research, and to work devoted to
coral reef conservation - I can remember just barely making a deadline for an
important report on a reef threatened by an airport development because of the
CITES paperwork needed to get the corals out of one country, into my own, and
then into a third where a qualified identification expert was located.

That being said, the collection of corals as souvenirs can be a threat in some
areas. 100 million visitors arrive in the Caribbean each year. If only a small
percentage of them took souvenirs, that could lead to removal of a lot of coral
from popular tourists sites were it not for CITES regulations which discourage
such souvenir taking.  Of course it might be argued that tourist trampling,
untreated domestic wastes from tourist facilities, etc. cause just as much if
not more destruction.

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