[Coral-List] Josemite Sam
Charles Delbeek
delbeek at waquarium.org
Thu Feb 14 15:51:40 EST 2008
Having read the posts concerning these supposedly "illegal" corals, I
would urge some of you to please familiarize yourself with CITES; what
exactly it is, what its intent is, and what the definitions and
restrictions are when dealing with Appendice I, II and III organisms.
Provided the reseller has the proper CITES export permit from the
country of purchase, and provided that the collection of coral in the
country of origin is not illegal under any laws within that country, and
provided that the import of coral into the country selling said product
is legal, there is *nothing *illegal or nefarious going on here.
However, I would ask Mr. Blum, aside from looking at the rather small
and low resolution photos on the website, have you actually seen these
corals in person? To my eyes (poor as they have become) and limited by
the low quality and small size of the images, these could be artificial
corals. I have seen several examples of white clay and porcelain corals
and Tridacnid clam shells for sale in curio shops lately. Perhaps these
are what they are? Also, the reseller may claim these are from the GBR
but that does not mean they actually are or that they are even real
corals, it could just be marketing hype for all anyone knows. The only
way to know is to actually see a sample of what is being sold. For
example, at a local craft show a few years ago, a woman had a booth
selling jewelry made from "blue coral". She claimed it was from Hawaii
and that it used to be plentiful but almost disappeared, but was now
making a comeback in the Hawaiian Islands. This coral has never been
here and is not now. So marketing rules in many of these cases and the
old Latin adage "caveat emptor" applies!
Aloha!
J. Charles Delbeek
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