[Coral-List] Worst places to harvest coral for aquarium

Wed Apr 5 22:00:32 EDT 2017

Hi Damien,

I worked in the reef aquarium industry for a good while, and while reefers
are definitely enthusiastic about corals and would be very interested in
learning about reef restoration and conservation... I found that very few
of them are willing to actually seek out aquacultured or maricultured
corals, since they are generally much smaller and more expensive. The
larger problem, however, is that importers and wholesalers are extremely
secretive about their sources, and collectors/harvesters overseas will do
almost anything to protect their locations. Though I agree that determining
where wild coral harvest is happening and where it is most ecologically
damaging is extremely important, I think that gathering information on that
will be extremely difficult. If there is a way to collect data from customs
on incoming shipments and where they are coming from, I think that would be
your best bet. I think your jewelry is a great idea, and it will sell well
in the reef aquarium industry. Donating money from the proceeds to
organizations promoting restoration and conservation will certainly make a
difference, and attract buyers. Good luck with the data collection on the
coral harvesting, after what I've seen from within the industry, it is very
necessary to find a way to reduce the amount of wild harvested corals and
wild caught tropical fish entering the trade... though accomplishing that
will be a difficult task.

Matthew Clark
matthew.eric.clark at gmail.com

On Wed, Apr 5, 2017 at 12:00 PM, <coral-list-request at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
>
>    1. Worst places to harvest coral for aquarium trade? (Damien Beri)
>    2. Re: : "What happened to my *$%^# post?" (James Hendee)
>    3. coral reef baselines survey closing soon! (Bruno, John)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2017 12:37:22 -0400
> From: Damien Beri <beridl at g.cofc.edu>
> Subject: [Coral-List] Worst places to harvest coral for aquarium
>         trade?
> To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> Message-ID: <1915328F-93F3-4ABB-A1AC-35F9C9965FAA at g.cofc.edu>
> Content-Type: text/plain;       charset=us-ascii
>
> Dear Coral-Listers,
>
> I would like to get some intel on areas and locations on the planet where
> "live coral harvesting" for the aquarium trade are most detrimental to the
> environment.
>
> There will be a live coral trade show in New Jersey/ New York this coming
> June tittled "Reefapalooza."  I will be setting up a booth advocating reef
> restoration and preservation.  My company, see Reefinedarts.com, aims to
> market a beautiful 3D printed coral jewelry product to coral enthusiasts
> while benefiting active reef restoration by donating proceeds to the "Amiga
> Island Ecological Foundation," and "Fragments of Hope." You can now wear a
> symbol of reef restoration and advocacy designed and crafted in a way never
> before seen.. The connection from mariculture, to fashion culture. An
> obvious gap in the science community which we want to fill.
>
> It would be beneficial to us all to input some ideas as to how to steer
> buyers away from Corals which have been harvested in the worst and most
> detrimental manner.  There will be some of the bigger coral aquarium
> celebrities and magazine journalists there so making a wave (yes, Coral
> aquarium celebrities exist) could carry momentum farther than just a single
> 2 day event.  I plan on going to multiple events similar to this one and
> advocating reef restoration so if there are any organizations which want to
> sponsor our travels and get their name out there as well please let me know.
>
> I cannot stress more the importance for our science community to connect
> with the reef aquarium community.  Reef aquarists are of the same blood as
> us, and they love coral just as much as any of you!  They want nothing more
> than to see coral reefs thrive.  However the scene that they follow, and
> the blogs and magazines they read show far too little the destructive
> nature that the trade provokes, for obvious business reasons.  I would like
> to thank Mr. Walt Smith and project ADE for taking action on this type of
> situation directly.  If we can get reef aquarists (reefers) on-board with
> outspoken motivation to bring awareness to coral reefs, then we have a
> powerful community of already trained and knowledgeable people to bring
> more awareness to the inevitable loss of biodiversity and ecological
> production.
>
> Understandably any harvesting of live coral is detrimental when the corals
> are directly removed from a reef, however the industry still exists and so
> we must mitigate the destructive nature as best as possible. I am aiming to
> do just that.  Please provide me with any articles, data, or videos of
> proof to such destructive attributes of live coral harvesting.  As I will
> be operating essentially in "enemy territory" vouching for people not to
> buy things like Australian corals (which can be the most expensive and
> profitable) I would like as much scientific backing as possible.
>
> Here are some of my questions, please assist me in generating some more
> powerful questions and give me any input you may have to make a more
> meaningful impact.
>
> ---I understand SPS corals such as Acropora are maricultured, in what ways
> is this beneficial, and in what ways is this detrimental to the
> environment? Where, and why?
>
> ---Is the continued harvesting of slow growing LPS corals from Australia
> bad? If so why does it still continue?
>
> ---What regions of the world have seen massive over exploitation of native
> corals for the aquarium trade?
>
> ---how can aquarists confirm their corals are as sustainably harvested as
> possible? CITES tags are normally removed before purchase from the retailer
> as the corals get fragged.
>
> Thanks you sincerely for you time, and to those of you in the field or in
> the labs, or even looking for work, keep doing what you do best and don't
> stop trying to make this planet a better place! We all need you.
>
> Damien Beri
> Founder
> Reefined Arts LLC
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2017 08:32:03 -0400
> From: James Hendee <jim.hendee at noaa.gov>
> Subject: Re: [Coral-List] : "What happened to my *$%^# post?"
> To: Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> Message-ID: <a58133e2-d57d-2261-d81a-62266b86f90c at noaa.gov>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
>
> Greetings!
>
> I guess this bears repeating, since I'm still getting similar queries.
> So, see my post of March 22, below, then see Mike Jankulak's
> (co-Administrator) March 23 post to a user who still had problems.
> Bottom line:  check your configuration by logging on the bottom of the
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> I hope you have a glorious day!
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>     Jim
>
> On 3/23/17 4:30 PM, Mike Jankulak - NOAA Affiliate wrote:
> > Gmail subscribers generally do not receive copies of our own Coral-List
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> > Mike J+
> > -------- Forwarded Message --------
> Subject:        "What happened to my *$%^# post?"
> Date:   Wed, 22 Mar 2017 10:24:41 -0400
> From:   James Hendee <jim.hendee at noaa.gov>
> To:     Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
>
>
> For some reason, we've been getting a lot of these lately.
>
> Some of you may have configured your subscription so that you do not
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> I really, really hope this helps.
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>     Cheers,
>         the Coral-List Admin Team
>         Jim, Mike, Lew
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>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2017 14:17:47 +0000
> From: "Bruno, John" <jbruno at unc.edu>
> Subject: [Coral-List] coral reef baselines survey closing soon!
> To: "coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov" <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> Cc: "Eddy, Tyler" <t.eddy at oceans.ubc.ca>
> Message-ID:
>         <BY2PR0301MB19923EB757ABDE1FF0F7A799D60A0 at BY2PR0301MB1992.
> namprd03.prod.outlook.com>
>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> We have received ~ 150 responses to the survey so far.
>
> Only a few "highly experienced" scientists have completed it: Dear Reef
> Elders: your experience and knowledge is invaluable! If you can spare a few
> minutes, the link is here:  https://unc.az1.qualtrics.com/
> SE/?SID=SV_3eif2BMD1nx13eJ
>
> We will keep it open until the end of the week.
>
> Thank you,
>
> John
>
> ------------------------------
>
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> End of Coral-List Digest, Vol 104, Issue 3
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>