I have noticed that sales on Tampa Bay Reef Central publicly have gone down considerably as of three years ago. (You should have seen the traffic back in the day.)
Three years ago, threads were started of attaining aquaculture licenses.
I encourage those to make the effort to attain a license so you have done everything required to be legal in your potential transactions. There is a $100 annual fee. Pay the fee so you sleep good at night. No transaction is worth the grief of a potential fine.
After that, if people still have a problem with you selling corals that is on them. Same as people liking someone's personality. I personally tend to have relationships with those who enjoy my company. I also have a right to be selective as to who I want to deal with on my end.
I personally support "open trade" within regulation. We live in a free country. If I own a piece of coral and if I want to share it with the community legally, I am well within my rights to do so. I can set any price I want and make it available to the "open market". I believe it is the buyer's choice to ultimately support my behavior.
I support everyone equally on this forum. You never know when you will need their support. Plus it is nice to make new relationships.
I am going on 4 months of me starting my tank completely over to confidently know that I have an AEFW free system. This was my choice out of respect toward our local community. Huge set back, but I am in this hobby for the long run. I am glad that it was pointed out and I am glad that it is now behind me.
When I have a frag of something I intend to let everyone know about it so everyone has an equal opportunity to enjoy cultivating that particular species in their own fashion.
I chose to make the effort to acquire an aquaculture license.
Even if I don't exceed $100 in annual sales, I choose to live a life of better safe than sorry.
If anything, me being an animal lover in general, the $100 helps support Florida Wild Life preservation. (Even if the money doesn't go to this, it helps me justify my annual contribution.)
Respectfully, my personal opinion - it isn't Reef Central's or FWC's ultimate responsibility to police ALL sales of corals. They have bigger issues to manage. It is up to the buyer to take some responsibility to ask the right questions.
As we all know, this hobby is very expensive.
If people make the effort to jump through the hoops of attaining legal licensing, allow people to do what they want. They deserve to do so. Allow people to off set the expenses of this hobby and support others interested in attaining certain species.
This is an incredible hobby, cultivating and sharing coral frags is just another level of enjoyment. If someone is successful at something, become their friend so they can help you equally become successful. I promise you, they will teach you how to become better at this hobby in general.
Frag sales encourage people to make personal visits and talk "reef" and indirectly encourage education onto others.
There is always a positive to everything.