New data by CITIES AND NOAA shows that of the 200,000 meric tons of coral removed 94,000 kilos of this is hard corals ? that works out to 1/100ths of 1 percent I believe? Is this true?
As CITES exporters often overreport their items, NOAA compiled a report using only Fish and Wildlife Import docents. These are considered more reliable because they must be accurate to account for all incoming live shipments to the U.S. .
This report is a bit outdated but was readily available on the web. Newer stuff found in libraries and gov archives show a continually increasing trend, probably accounting for the higher numbers in 2000 and 2001.
In 1997 over 500,000 items and 15,000 kg of stony corals, and 410,000 items and 600,000 kg of reef substrate (live rock) were imported into the U.S. In 1998 the U.S. imported 550,000 items and 94,000 kg of stony corals and 570,000 items and 890,000 kg of reef substrate.
As the world's largest importer of coral reef organisms, the United States has a major responsibility to promote nondestructive, sustainable harvesting practices.
I think that what he means is that almost all the rest of the collecting is for the curio trade, limestone for cement, etc, etc, but non-hobby related destruction.