[Coral-List] 82 Corals Status Review under the US Endangered Species Act

[Douglas Fenner]

Gene,
    I've been told that Millepora grows like a weed in aquaria, and that if people had realized the problem, they could have been grown in aquaria and the species saved.  Zoos do that sort of thing for vertebrates all the time.  I remember reading the story of the Phoenix, Arizona, zoo, which gathered the last half dozen or so Arabian Oryx left in the entire world, and started a captive breeding program.  They brought them back from the brink of extinction by producing many calves.  Likewise, Whooping Cranes have also been brought back from the brink of extinction by captive breeding programs.  Wikipedia has these two stories. There are lots more success stories.   I've read that no species that has been declared under the US Endangered Species Act has gone extinct, but one of the papers I had in my references in my earlier message documented that hundreds have gone extinct while waiting for government to make a decision on whether to list
 them.  The Endangered Species Act makes a difference.  It certainly isn't perfect.  Name anything that is.  The alternative is grim, as extinction is forever.      Cheers,  Doug



________________________________
 From: Eugene Shinn <eshinn at marine.usf.edu>
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov 
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2012 2:55 AM
Subject: [Coral-List] 82 Corals Status Review under the US Endangered Species Act
 
Thanks Doug, I wonder if those Millipora species had been listed back 
in the 1980s would they be living today? Gene
-- 


No Rocks, No Water, No Ecosystem (EAS)
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E. A. Shinn, Courtesy Professor
University of South Florida
College of Marine Science Room 221A
140 Seventh Avenue South
St. Petersburg, FL 33701
<eshinn at marine.usf.edu>
Tel 727 553-1158---------------------------------- 
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