Reefdiver72
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Frag No More? Endangered Species Proposal Threatens Marine Aquaculture
By CORAL Editors - Posted on 30 March 2010
Aquacultured Acropora sp. at Oceans Reefs & Aquariums in Ft. Pierce, Florida.
Image by Matthew L. Wittenrich from The 101 Best Marine Invertebrates.
A petition to classify 82 stony corals as Endangered Species under U.S. law could spell doom"”or a bureaucratic nightmare"”for any business or individual aquaculturing corals or live rock for the aquarium trade, industry experts are predicting.
"Listing the corals would destroy the aquaculture business," says marine biologist and well-known reef protection advocate Henry Feddern, PhD of Tavernier, Florida. "I do not see that listing the corals as endangered would do anything to benefit the coral populations, but it's going to put a big crimp"”a very big crimp"” in the plans of anyone who wants to buy, sell, or frag stony corals. You will be able to keep your existing corals, but it may require a permit.
"It seems the Endangered Species Act could be used against its own interests, by preventing people from propagating the corals in home aquariums with no cost to the government," says Feddern.
In Need of Comments
"I am very concerned," Marshall Meyers of the Pet Industry Joint Action Council told CORAL. "So far only a handful of objections to the petition have been filed, and the deadline is April 12th. We need industry leaders and, especially, people with Ph.D.s attached to their names to make themselves heard." *(Where to Comment.)
"This could be devastating for native people in the Marshall Islands who are supplying us with maricultured corals," says Dustin Dorton, hatchery manager at Oceans Reefs & Aquaria (ORA). Dorton and others say that enforcement of the ban on collection, shipment, or sale of the 82 named corals could reach far beyond these species. They point out that many stony corals are very hard, if not impossible, to identify positively to the species level by visually examining live corals.
"Proper identification of Acropora is quite difficult," says Paul Zajiceck, aquatic biologist at the Florida Dept. of Agriculture/Aquaculture.*"The experts don't even seem to agree on how many species there are to begin with. It can be impossible to accurately pin down the species of an aquacultured specimen because its morphology can change so drastically from its wild form. This could have very negative implications for in-situ aquaculture facilities overseas."
Proving that a particular Acropora sp. coral, for example, is not one of the species listed as endangered could be extremely difficult and could entangle all species of Acropora in a maze of laws, rules, and impediments to trade and possession. Aquacultured live rock, for example, might run afoul of the law if naturally settling stony coral colonies, however small, could not be proved to be species not listed as endangered.
Feddern, who is an advisory panel member of the Coral Management Plan for the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council, is urging the marine aquarium community to "wake up and not sleep through this." He has written to NOAA and says that people who stand to lose their businesses or their rights to culture corals need to speak up forcefully. (Where to Comment.)
By CORAL Editors - Posted on 30 March 2010
Aquacultured Acropora sp. at Oceans Reefs & Aquariums in Ft. Pierce, Florida.
Image by Matthew L. Wittenrich from The 101 Best Marine Invertebrates.
A petition to classify 82 stony corals as Endangered Species under U.S. law could spell doom"”or a bureaucratic nightmare"”for any business or individual aquaculturing corals or live rock for the aquarium trade, industry experts are predicting.
"Listing the corals would destroy the aquaculture business," says marine biologist and well-known reef protection advocate Henry Feddern, PhD of Tavernier, Florida. "I do not see that listing the corals as endangered would do anything to benefit the coral populations, but it's going to put a big crimp"”a very big crimp"” in the plans of anyone who wants to buy, sell, or frag stony corals. You will be able to keep your existing corals, but it may require a permit.
"It seems the Endangered Species Act could be used against its own interests, by preventing people from propagating the corals in home aquariums with no cost to the government," says Feddern.
In Need of Comments
"I am very concerned," Marshall Meyers of the Pet Industry Joint Action Council told CORAL. "So far only a handful of objections to the petition have been filed, and the deadline is April 12th. We need industry leaders and, especially, people with Ph.D.s attached to their names to make themselves heard." *(Where to Comment.)
"This could be devastating for native people in the Marshall Islands who are supplying us with maricultured corals," says Dustin Dorton, hatchery manager at Oceans Reefs & Aquaria (ORA). Dorton and others say that enforcement of the ban on collection, shipment, or sale of the 82 named corals could reach far beyond these species. They point out that many stony corals are very hard, if not impossible, to identify positively to the species level by visually examining live corals.
"Proper identification of Acropora is quite difficult," says Paul Zajiceck, aquatic biologist at the Florida Dept. of Agriculture/Aquaculture.*"The experts don't even seem to agree on how many species there are to begin with. It can be impossible to accurately pin down the species of an aquacultured specimen because its morphology can change so drastically from its wild form. This could have very negative implications for in-situ aquaculture facilities overseas."
Proving that a particular Acropora sp. coral, for example, is not one of the species listed as endangered could be extremely difficult and could entangle all species of Acropora in a maze of laws, rules, and impediments to trade and possession. Aquacultured live rock, for example, might run afoul of the law if naturally settling stony coral colonies, however small, could not be proved to be species not listed as endangered.
Feddern, who is an advisory panel member of the Coral Management Plan for the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council, is urging the marine aquarium community to "wake up and not sleep through this." He has written to NOAA and says that people who stand to lose their businesses or their rights to culture corals need to speak up forcefully. (Where to Comment.)
