and suppose they determine it is to difficult to identify said protected/endangered corals at the species level and it really costs a whole lot to train all of the folks in the field doing enforcement. So then they decide you know what from a cost perspective lets just expand enforcement to cover at the the genus level. That way we know none of the endangered species get by us... There go those other 300+...
That is a lot of ifs... I do work with issues like those constantly, and enforcing agencies will not ban anything at the genus level just because they cannot identify them (at least here in the US, but that is what we are talking about). What enforcing agencies such as fish and wildlife do very often is send photographs (or samples) of shipments to specialists that can determine the species identity when their own technicians cannot.
I'm also not sure I buy the argument that stopping all collection is going to prevent eventual demise... Yes I am sure it would take some pressure off of of said species but I think a whole lot of other things would need to change to make a real long term change. My position is let the nations that the corals come from determine the level of take that can be supported.
Should we make it legal to commercialize rhino horns and tiger "private" parts then? There is no way we can save them just by prohibiting commerce. Habitat destruction (just as what happens with corals) is the biggest threat.
Unfortunately, the nations where coral (and tigers and rhinos) come from are not run by people that actually think about future generations, so we cannot leave these decisions for them if we want to see coral in the future. Most of those nations are run by people worried about immediate gain. And since education (again for the most part) is not very good on those countries, I don't see this situation changing any time soon.
Don't take me wrong, I am not proposing a ban on coral or fish trading, I defend the aquarium trade every chance I have, and I do have a reef tank. It is a great educational tool, people relate to coral reef conservation issues with much more passion after they see a reef (or even a tank). All I am saying is that those specific 66 species are declining, so why put the additional pressure on them? Quite frankly, I don't see this as a threat to the hobby and I sincerely think that most hobbyists should be behind this.
Now here is something that a lot of people don't know: the IUCN Red List, which provided the information that led to this entire debate, constantly re-evaluates the conservation status of those species (at least once every 10 years, sometimes after just 5 years if there is reason to suspect changes). If they start to recover (or even if they stop declining) in the future, it is very likely that they will be removed from the threatened category.