Goverment wants to take away our reef tanks

[quarryshark]

Opps, I see it is already there.......never mind.

 

[clowninround]

Actually, and not that I want to include the government, but if the main wholesalers were given so many corals that would not impact the ocean to aquaculture and the corals on the outer edges of the reefs that are depleteing, since that would be a better chance for life. Once the wholesalers have a good supply (and it would probabally have to undergo education classes from the government to qualify them for this), then this system could be implemented: corals from the government apporoved whosalers go to the LFS's to be sold, THEN once we get them, give back 10% back to the LFS to re-sell. I know I know, it's a system that would require many checks and balances and the wholesalers might not be able to keep up demand. But ya never know, something along those lines might work? QS, thats a good idea!

 

[clowninround]

oh and also a certain percentage going back to the ocean from the wholesalers in areas where new reefs are being built

 

[quarryshark]

Nice, might work. Worth some thought thats for sure.
Also, encourage independent fish farmers to further the technologies in breeding more species of fish. 5 of my fish are tank raised (including the one in my avatar). I would buy all tank raised fish if they were available for a reasonable price.
Would love to see solutions within the industry, without the govt's involvment. LR.com has the right Idea. Perhaps companies like them could aquaculture some coral species on the LR they are developing in the gulf and other places as well.

 

[clowninround]

I am with you on not involving the government, but it may be that they involve themselves if we don't find solutions of our own like you suggest. I know LR.com is aquaculture, but I have never been told how they do it. Do they put the lime rock there themselves?

 

[quarryshark]

I believe so. From my brief conversation with them, they seem to be heavily regulated by the federal govt.
I can't remember the time period, but they have a specific area to place the rock for seeding and a specific time period it spends there.

I am with you on not involving the government, but it may be that they involve themselves if we don't find solutions of our own like you suggest.

Of course, you are right. Hey, lets put you in charge!! Go getter.

 

[quarryshark]

One more thing. If we MUST have govt involvement, perhaps a criteria could be set up and a licence could be created to sell SW stock. This would allow for more accountability all the way down the line and perhaps improve the hobby's reputation for those who don't have a clue (like congress).
criteria for a licence could include:
Using only aquacultures rock, buying from wholesalers that capture animals in humane ways and/or tank raised animals and educating consumers (correctly) on how properly keep a SW setup.
It could be kept simple (ya right), but go a long way to preserving our hobby and maybe making some improvements within it.
I don't like govt involvement in much of anything, but in our case it sounds like it may be inevitable.
Don't flame me too bad, just a thought.

 

[clowninround]

I agree w/ ya 100%

 

[fishfreek]

The though of seeding the reefs with aquacultured corals is not new. I heard a speaker last year I belive talking about that very thing. The issue they discovered was the huge amount of time it takes. Producing the small reef plugs with concrete and curing it. Then drilling into the reef and securing these plugs that have coral frags attached took so much time and expense. The other issue is what parasites and diseases we would be introducting into the wild from our tanks. We as hobbists have a very bad habit of putting corals and fish from totally different parts of the ocean together. Disease can be transmitted into the wild with the potental for acutal damage due to our saving efforts.

As was described any LR that comes from FL is aquacultured rock. They purchase a bunch limestone type rock that is taken from land quaries. This is then transported to a special plot of ocean bottom on barges. It is then 'dumped' into the ocean in this specific aquaculture plot. After a few years what you end up with is some nice quality live rock. The aquaculture plots are highly regulated and the location of the plots is done with fairly strict rules. I belive you have to do a survey of the ocean bed where you want to do a plot and have to document the amount of life on the bottom before you add rock.

Below is an excerpt from an e-mail I got back from the Director of Reef Protection International.

Well, the easiest answer to this absolute misperception is to look at the
election results. If one understands the legislative process, and the agenda
of the current legislature, they will know that any conservation bills will be
given short shrift. That's the reality.

Of course, Ed Case has been re-elected and will probably re-introduce his bill.
The question will be how well he does in gaining co-sponsors. This, coupled
with recommendations made by the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force may end up keeping the dialogue for coral reef conservation going.

Look for much more information about this orginization to be posted here at AA over the comming months.

 

[fishfreek]

This whole discussion may speed up some plans I had for writting some additional content for our site.

 

[quarryshark]

Aaron, has there been any discussion of a self regulating licencing plan? Basically, the industry can show the federal govt that it can police itself better without legislation.

 

[fishfreek]

There are companies otu there trying to get nets in the hands of those collectors who have been known to use cyanide. www.seacrop.com is one of them that acutally had a fund drive a year or year and half ago to purchase a large amount of netting and have it sent to collectors. There was a well known activest that was then going to train collectors in how to make the hand nets and the best practices in using them. They where also involved in educating the collectors in why cyanide usage was bad for not only the live stock but for their future lively hood since the cyanide often kills the surrounding corals and inverts. Enough usage will kill a reef and when the reef is going the collectors have no more income to feed their familys.

You have orginizations like http://masna.org - Marine Aquarium Socities of North America and http://www.aquariumcouncil.org/ - Marine Aquarium Council along with several other lobbing agencies that are our voice to the government.

 

[Hara]

This may be much too broad of a generalization, but I think you all will get my meaning....until the greedy consumer (that is us folks) stop buying fish/corals etc
that are not tank-bred, cyanide free livestock, we will continue to contribute to the problem. We, as a one-minded group, have the power to put a stop to it all. I realize I am minimalizing what is needed, but it is all supply and demand. If we quit buying it, they quit doing it. Unfortunately, not many of us have the will power, desire or whatever you want to call it, to make this happen. And it would, indeed, require total participation. The only part I havent figured out yet, is how to get that USDA seal of approval stamp on the livestock

 

[fishfreek]

Excactly. It all starts at the consumer. Being aware of the issues is #1. I am suppirsed every time I talk about cyanide and dynamite methods of capture how few people are aware of such acts going on and thats just a sample.