The biggest threat to our hobby

[asylumdown]

I normally don't like to get all Chicken Little about things, but I think everyone should read this Reefbuilder's article carefully:

http://reefbuilders.com/2013/04/03/r...coral-listing/

RB has written about this rule before, but the public comment period is about to close, and so far there's only 46 comments from the public. If this is passed, it could very well mean the end to the US coral trade, which can only have horrific consequences for us up here in Canada.

I'm very much in favour of conservation, and this hobby is by no means free of ethical dilemmas, but the NOAA has already acknowledged that the big threats to the species they're trying to list as threatened climate change and habitat destruction, neither of which have any hope of being resolved, addressed, or even influenced by this regulation. Furthermore, the science used to classify many of these species as endangered or threatened is so flaky it can't even be called science. I'm not saying they're not threatened, but the work to prove it absolutely has not been done. This is how the IUCN has evaluated the risk status of Acanthastrea ishigakiensis:

"There is no species specific population information available for this species. However, there is evidence that overall coral reef habitat has declined, and this is used as a proxy for population decline for this species."

Translation: we never actually did any work with this species, but we're guessing it's in trouble.

Making it illegal to grow these - or any other species - in home aquariums will absolutely, under no circumstances, prevent the destructions of reefs due to climate change. In fact, 99% of what we know about coral propogation and mariculture (techniques that are being used to restore reefs the world over) are the direct result of and funded by the hobby aquarium trade. When it comes to corals, the hobby is one of the biggest allies reefs have in terms of encouraging non-destructive reef related economic activities, which in turn funds the facilities and fosters the know how to repair reefs that are on the edge.

Obviously we need rules, but this is a bad one. I hope everyone takes a moment to comment on the regulation while there's still time. There's a link on the RB article to the comment page.

[beefORchicken]

agreed +1

[Proteus]

Done. Thanks for the link

[Delphinus]

Only 46 from the public? Man I even put a comment in. I'm thinking that figure is not updated.

No, I think you're right though. It's not like this sort of thing hasn't come up before, but everytime something like this comes up, it gets a little closer to sticking. I think the will come that the hobby will be changed. It might not be today, or next year .. but eventually having corals in a captive reef in a home may become something that only exists in past tense.

Hoping that common sense and reason will eventually prevail, but .... well, like I said, I put my comments in already. We'll see where things go.

[Delphinus]

Well at least it's not actually only 46 comments. The webpage shows 481 but when you do start looking at them there are 530 comments. Good, at least we are seeing some numbers.

[Jakegr]

I completely support the opinion that a potential ban on aquacultured species is ridiculous, but I do have some concerns with MASNA's stance. Specifically the "they should to be listed as "species of concern" and studied". This is just not possible.

I posted under the ReefBuilders article saying as much. The vast majority of fisheries have to make due with insufficient data and analysis. It is unreasonable to wait for those species to be thoroughly studied, in my opinion, because it will just never happen. There are not enough resources (people and money) to do the work. In my opinion, that stance is not one that is based on the reality of commercial fisheries.

[naesco]

It is a mistake to say that the problems are created by the environment and to blame others.

The fish/coral industry is a problem and a serious one because they ignore the problem.
There are many examples including importing fish and coral that has no reasonable chance of success.

We should not be bringing in any wild fish or coral where aquacultured are available. The mining of live rock must also stop.

If we ignore the problem we will be left with trading brown frags amongst eachother.

If the species on the list are deemed threatened we as hobbyists should be the first to fully support the legislation!!

[asylumdown]

yah you're right, it was only showing the comments from yesterday, not all of them. There's about 500. Most of them seem to be against the ban. The ones I read in favour of the ban did not read as though the authors really understood the issue - "evil humans bad, mother nature good! Yay nature!"

And yah, the whole legal structure surrounding endangered species needs work. There clearly should be some sort of legislative structure governing the conservation of reef species, but it seems like there's just no appropriate tool in place for them. The ESA is a smothering blanket that is blind to the nuance of the aquarium industry, but there's no question there's an over-harvesting of some species that are hard to propagate, like elegance corals.

I hope it doesn't pass. The group who nominated these corals for the ESA did it pretty much for pure political reasons to try to force the US government to act meaningfully on the topic of CO2 emissions. 99 times out of 100, I'd have been on their side, but they're effectively holding our hobby ransom for political gain. Heck, if listing those corals as threatened or endangered had one lick of a hope of affecting global CO2 emissions, I might actually support it, but it won't and never will.