Can you collect your own coral?

[MT79]

This guy can! He lives in the Phillipine islands and free dives to collect all the coral he keeps. Talk about the good life He has some interesting pieces too- http://home2.pacific.net.ph/~sweetyummy42/index.html
Edit-the link will not work :? but if you use cut/paste it it will.

 

[Brenden]

I have friends that go there to dive and they say that is illegal. You have to get caught first and I imagine they pay no attention to the locals.

 

[MT79]

friends that go there to dive and they say that is illegal

I wondered about that when I saw it-Call the cops lol!

 

[zenn]

I'm thinking the phillipine reefs are protected these days. That is, what's left of them. I 've read horror stories about many of the phillipine reefs disappearing because of cyanid capture and other unfriendly ecological practices. I think i read it's illegal to harvest anything from the phillipine reefs without consent from the government. Of course, i coudl be completely wrong as i'm not an expert on the topic.

 

[StripesTheEel]

I have seen a documentary, where some researchers actually caught on tape local fisherman throwing dynamite in the water to stun fish for capture (bream, mullet etc) to sell to fish markets.. but the majority of them miss and hit the reefs.. destruction that causes a 2000 yr old reef to disappear in seconds..



NOT HAPPY JAN!

 

[JPloman]

Most coral reefs are protected. I would really recommend not harvesting from the wild. Its not only illegal in almost all places, but it is really bad for the enviroment. Like StripesTheEel said, people have been destroying our natural reef systems for years and it only takes seconds to remove life from the reef.

Did you know that even the sunscreen that you wear when you snorkel over reefs is bad for them? The patrolium in the sunscreen kills the corals.

 

[melosu58]

I`ll have to remember that

 

[JPloman]

They sell "reef safe" sunscreen. It works just as well!