Tonga--Banned?

[RyanG]

Has anyone heard anything about a new law in the Tongan Kingdom that banned exportation of coral and live rock? One of the LFS owners from my RC area club reportedly has recieved a notice from the US Fish and Wildlife service that stated the above. Also one that strictly moniters imports from Australia with permits and also reported that there is a bill in Congress that will severly limit Hawaiian collection of fishes. Anyone heard anything similar?

[RyanG]

http://www.pijac.org/files/public/HI_SB_3225.pdf

HAWAIIAN PROPOSED LAW-truth to this one

[cthegame]

Originally Posted by RyanG

Has anyone heard anything about a new law in the Tongan Kingdom that banned exportation of coral and live rock? One of the LFS owners from my RC area club reportedly has recieved a notice from the US Fish and Wildlife service that stated the above. Also one that strictly moniters imports from Australia with permits and also reported that there is a bill in Congress that will severly limit Hawaiian collection of fishes. Anyone heard anything similar?

Well its about time i guess.

[lightcs4]

Regarding Hawaii, I personally, I like the idea of purchasing animals that have been aquacultured when possible. I'm not against responsible harvesting of wildlife (I love to hunt and fish), but I think it is good to conserve where we can.

[fatman]

It is inevitable that it will eventually be a world wide ban. Of course there will be pouching and non participating countries (that is the greedy nature of human beings). We (the USA) will probably ban all importations, but allow maricultured and aqua cultured, so a lot of wild stuff will be slipped in with that. If it works like other bans, proclamations and international laws it will take a decade or two to become really effective. People still poach alligators, crocodiles, elephants and other protected and banned animals, and that has been illegal since before some of the people on this site were even born. The value of all or live stock has just gone up again. i do not believe it is even legal to harvest coral from some of the places coral is now available from. Is it legal to harvest coral from Australia or Japan? Perhaps the very, very, high prices of Japanese and Australian coral are an indicator of the legality.

[Rcpilot]

I was at the LFS yesterday afternoon and they were talking about this.

Australia already has strict collection regulations. Thats why anything from there costs big bucks. Those regulations are about to get a lot stiffer.

With regard to Hawaii:
If you like yellow tangs, you'd better go out and buy one while they are still $12. Soon they will be $100.

[Doc]

guess I had better keep my anthias alive for a while since they are about to get WAY more expensive.

-Doc

[fatman]

If the fish you want or are presently keeping it is not already being bred in captivity or isn't being bred in captivity very soon it will soon be a very expensive possession or a probable poached fish at a high price. I imagine all LFS live marine stock will be going up in price immediately and will continue to jump alarmingly ever time some other sanction is imposed. We are running out of places to exploit for cheap fish, coral and even rocks. The price of aragonite sand has gone up over 1000 percent in just a few years. The only cheap ready access to it is now through the Bahamas and only one Bahamian Company has permits to harvest the aragonite sand and that one single company supplies all the US suppliers. It used to be sold until a few years ago as building sand and was sold for cheaper than east cost gravel companies could supply domestic sand. Use to sell for $4 or $5 per fifty pound bag (8 to 10 cents per pound) as sand box sand for children at all major hardware stores such as HomeDepot or Lowes. Now it is $1 per pound or more plus shipping at online pet stores. Fish and coral prices will under go the same price effect or worse.

[Zissou]

I hope I have enough time after setting up the tank to get it established enough for a Potters angel.