thread review - canreef staff please read

[Ron99]

As I see it there are several issues/points here:

1. The corals are being advertised as having a specific "branded" lineage as ORA or Tyree aquacultured so I think Dave was just asking for some documentation to show that. Perhaps he could of done it by PM to avoid some of this controversy but I don't think he was accusing anybody of any particular and possibly shady dealings, he just wanted to see some documentation that these were in fact what was described. I suppose it's like buying a pedigreed dog or horse. You will want to see some documentation showing the pedigree.

2. A separate issue is whether it is possible to legally import these into Canada. From my discussions with Ian it seems they have found a way to do that. Good for them. If they want to keep it a trade secret for business reasons I guess they have the right to do that. Ian should be able to provide some proof of lineage without giving away his methods but I don't think he needs to do that publicly. That can be handled by PM or email or in person etc. To accuse him of possible illegal activity in a public forum without evidence is stepping over the line. Maybe those posts should have been removed rather than closing the entire thread but that is surely another discussion that does not seem to get much traction with the mods here.

3. The CITES rules are here and despite their flaws, they do exist to protect the wild stocks of corals and animals etc. So unless people want to organize an effort to have the rules modified to have different documentation standards for aquacultured corals then we have to live with them. Regardless it will all be open to abuse one way or the other. As mentioned, what's to stop importers from slipping in any ORA or TYREE acro species under an acro CITES permit (not that I am saying this is what happens). If you change it to have different rules for aquacultured stuff what's to stop somebody slipping in some banned wild acro with a bunch of aquacultured stuff? I think it can be open to abuse either way so what is the best solution?