Attn to Eric Borneman
Dear Sir,
I am a commercial coral and aquarium fish collector operating in the Great Barrier Reef Australia.
We have been shipping corals now for about 15 years and have tried and continue to try various methods for packing corals. I agree that corals packed in too much water lead to higher loss rates.
Our preferred method now is to wrap corals in butchers paper (large plain white sheets) , dunk them in salt water and put them in a sealed plastic bag with a small amount of water and plenty of air ( or pure oxygen for longer trips). We put up to 20 coral pieces per bag. Coming from the tropics we put 2 small 500 gram blocks of ice wrapped in plenty of newspaper for insulation. This means the ice thaws slowly and keeps the stock uniformly cool during transit
We have found the corals arrive in excellent condition with almost no losses or damage.
Also in your article you made mention of a coral exporter from Fiji - "Waterlife Exports". Is Peter Savona still the owner of that business? I dived with him many years ago when he first started.
Best regards
Dear Sir,
I am a commercial coral and aquarium fish collector operating in the Great Barrier Reef Australia.
We have been shipping corals now for about 15 years and have tried and continue to try various methods for packing corals. I agree that corals packed in too much water lead to higher loss rates.
Our preferred method now is to wrap corals in butchers paper (large plain white sheets) , dunk them in salt water and put them in a sealed plastic bag with a small amount of water and plenty of air ( or pure oxygen for longer trips). We put up to 20 coral pieces per bag. Coming from the tropics we put 2 small 500 gram blocks of ice wrapped in plenty of newspaper for insulation. This means the ice thaws slowly and keeps the stock uniformly cool during transit
We have found the corals arrive in excellent condition with almost no losses or damage.
Also in your article you made mention of a coral exporter from Fiji - "Waterlife Exports". Is Peter Savona still the owner of that business? I dived with him many years ago when he first started.
Best regards