Stoney corals possibly going on endangered list.

Imagine if you will, you come home from work to be greeted by the DNR removing your equipment because you own a frogspawn.

As silly as this sounds this article on reef builders is saying exactly that.



http://reefbuilders.com/2012/11/30/breaking-noaa-announces-proposal-list-66-stony-coral-species-endangered-threatened/#more-65926.



You can see the full list of proposed corals to be put on the endangered list here.



http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/stories/2012/11/docs/list_of_66_proposed_corals.pdf

 

Wow, that'd really piss me off!! lol the thing that really bugs me is the fact that even FRAGGING of some corals would be illegal! It's basically the process of fragging that the coral reef restoration project is using to restore staghorn and elkhorn corals in the caribbean! Looks like I better stock up on corals now so I won't be out of luck here!

 

So if you lose a coral, would you be guilty of killing an endangered species? Ouch! What about trimming a coral? What are you supposed to do with the frags you prune off? Hide them I guess so the "Man" won't find you.

 

It won't be an enforcable law on the personal level. On the commercial level it will affect our access greatly. This is only a handful of species. It would be nice if MASNA could get a comittee together to lobby an exemption for aquacultured interstate trade.

Buy/sell/trade forums in communities like ours will become increasingly clandestine.

 

This is a huge problem even at the local level. It would make "sale" of any of these listed corals illegal. If you ever decided to move, and it happened to be across a state line, that would be illegal also.

They need to do a better job enforcing current laws that already restrict the harvesting of most of these corals from the ocean.

 

Interesting.

I own some of these and are looking for other specimens on the list.

-Eric

 

I find it VERY hard to believe these are anywhere near endangered by the amount of wild ones I see on distributors list every week. Threatened by ocean acidification, yes, but they all are. Threatened, no.

 

It's just like the situation in Hawaii Craig, where a bunch of bleeding liberals turn the argument into an emotional argument instead of focusing on the reality of the data which suggests that collection zones are working. Not to mention with corals you have a whole lot of mariculture which employes hundreds of people in island nations who would otherwise have no work. Even scientific publications about biochemistry, ecology, and behavior of coral species is aided by the observations reported and collected by reef aquarium enthusiasts. There are many in our national community who are pivotal to understanding coral reefs and their preservation. It's a shame that our contributions are overshadowed by naive public opinions and environmental groups that discount our activities. MASNA needs to focus on using our collective influence to lobby for the preservation of our hobby at the federal level.

 

Did you guys see this, if youre not subscribed to the coral magazine newsletter I highly suggest it. http://www.reef2rainforest.com/2012/11/30/noaa-proposes-endangered-listing-for-66-stony-coral-species/