ccCapt
SW 20 & Over Club
I recently saw Anthony Calfo give a presentation on coral propagation. Some of the slides he had were unreal, but not in a good way. After his presentation, I was able to have a nice talk with him.
In his presentation, he talked about what's happening on the reefs around the world as far as fish, coral and live rock collecting. I believe he said in Sri Lanka, they have limits on what % of certain species of coral that can be harvested. They may allow, for example, 10% of acropora sp, lobophyllia sp and euphyllia sp be collected from a section of reef each year. The problem is in a year the acropora will more than likely recover the 10% that was harvested, but the brain corals or hammer corals do not reproduce fast enough to keep up with what was taken. Anthony showed pics of bins maybe 4' square and 2' high with what looked like hammer corals just thrown on top of each other...with no water in the bins!
In Fiji, there is a limit on the amount of live rock that can be harvested and exported. However, there is no limit on how much "limestone" can be harvested from the reefs. Did anyone ever see "Aquacultured Fiji Live Rock"? Petco sells it. It looks like big concrete doughnuts. How is this made? Anthony showed pics of a concrete plant that was built to make the "live rock". They blow up parts of the reef to "mine" the limestone, send it to the concrete plant and they make the rock and place it in runways, much like aquacultured corals are raised, so it becomes live. They are blowing up reefs to make live rock!
I've been in this reef hobby 20 years. I've seen may positive changes, but I don't want to see the potential changes for the negative that seem ineviatable. There are very, very few marine fish being bred in the US, but for freshwater, just in Florida, the #2 industry behind tourism is the freshwater ornamental fish breeding industry. What can we do as hobbyists? Research your purchases. If you have a 20g tank, don't get a mandarin or scooter blenny just because they are small fish. If you have nornal output lights, don't buy hard corals. Some common sense, research and thinking things thru can go along way.
Stepping off........
In his presentation, he talked about what's happening on the reefs around the world as far as fish, coral and live rock collecting. I believe he said in Sri Lanka, they have limits on what % of certain species of coral that can be harvested. They may allow, for example, 10% of acropora sp, lobophyllia sp and euphyllia sp be collected from a section of reef each year. The problem is in a year the acropora will more than likely recover the 10% that was harvested, but the brain corals or hammer corals do not reproduce fast enough to keep up with what was taken. Anthony showed pics of bins maybe 4' square and 2' high with what looked like hammer corals just thrown on top of each other...with no water in the bins!
In Fiji, there is a limit on the amount of live rock that can be harvested and exported. However, there is no limit on how much "limestone" can be harvested from the reefs. Did anyone ever see "Aquacultured Fiji Live Rock"? Petco sells it. It looks like big concrete doughnuts. How is this made? Anthony showed pics of a concrete plant that was built to make the "live rock". They blow up parts of the reef to "mine" the limestone, send it to the concrete plant and they make the rock and place it in runways, much like aquacultured corals are raised, so it becomes live. They are blowing up reefs to make live rock!
I've been in this reef hobby 20 years. I've seen may positive changes, but I don't want to see the potential changes for the negative that seem ineviatable. There are very, very few marine fish being bred in the US, but for freshwater, just in Florida, the #2 industry behind tourism is the freshwater ornamental fish breeding industry. What can we do as hobbyists? Research your purchases. If you have a 20g tank, don't get a mandarin or scooter blenny just because they are small fish. If you have nornal output lights, don't buy hard corals. Some common sense, research and thinking things thru can go along way.
Stepping off........