[Coral-List] Minisymposium: aquarium trade issues

[Andy Bruckner]

Dear Coral-List,

I would like to call your attention to the Okinawa 10th ICRS mini-symposium 4-23:
Addressing Sustainability of the Ornamental Coral Reef Species Trade  through
Improved Management of Wild Harvest and Environmentally-Friendly Coral Farming and
Aquaculture Approaches in Theme 4: Towards a system where humans and coral reefs
coexist: Aquarium Trade Issues. This session will be chaired by myself and Eric
Borneman. The scope of the session is described below:

The international trade in stony corals, other reef invertebrates and reef fishes
for aquaria and curios is a multimillion dollar industry that has experienced
rapid growth over the last decade, and this has been  associated with increasing
concerns of unsustainable collection, habitat destruction and a lack of resource
management strategies. This session will focus on strategies to ensure the
sustainable harvest and trade of ornamental coral reef species, with emphasis on
best practices in management, collection, monitoring, and aquaculture.
Presentations can focus on the development and implementation of holistic
approaches to manage the ecosystem, including efforts to incorporate the target
species and their role in the ecosystem; interactions with other species; and
other natural and anthropogenic stressors that should be considered when
developing sustainable management guidelines. Presentations on specific collection
techniques should focus on strategies to minimize collateral damage to non-target
species and avoid habitat impacts; what constitutes an optimal location for
collection; preferred sizes and appropriate taxa for collection; and
environmentally-friendly mariculture and aquaculture practices. Presentations can
also focus on effective monitoring strategies for ornamental fisheries, including
the need for and application of baseline data on the distribution, abundance and
size frequency of target stocks in management approaches; periodic monitoring to
detect changes in the resource; and evaluation of fisheries data, trade
statistics, and field survey    information to verify compliance and inform
resource managers

If you consider submitting your abstract to this session, please log in to:
http://www.plando.co.jp/icrs2004/   -   'Call for Papers'  -  'Abstract
Submission'. The code for mini-symposium "Addressing Sustainability of the
Ornamental Coral Reef Species Trade"  is 4 -23. Deadline for abstract submission
is December 25.

Have a great holiday season!

Andy

Andrew Bruckner, Ph.D.
Coral Reef Ecologist
NOAA Fisheries
Office of Habitat Conservation
1315 East West Highway
Silver Spring, MD 20910
301-713-3459x190