USCRTF meeting rescheduled

[dizzy]

This is a preliminary message to notify you of the new dates for the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force Meeting. The meeting has been rescheduled for November 30 to December 3, 2004 in Miami, Florida. Details will be provided on our website
http://www.ces.fau.edu/taskforce/ very soon.

 

[dizzy]

Well I guess the USCRTF meeting has come and gone. Did anyone attend? How about you John Brandt? If so what was decided?
Mitch

 

[JT]

Things actually get decided? I fell asleep at the one I went to many moons ago with Mike King, glad he was the one taking notes.

 

[John_Brandt]

Mitch, I was at the meeting. The only "decisions" made by the USCRTF are the adoptions of resolutions. There were three, none related to the MO trade. Since the meeting was in Miami there was a predominant focus on the problems with South Florida reefs. Nearly all news is bad news in this area with a few optimistic reports presented. Governor Jeb Bush seems to be concerned and willing to allocate funds towards returning the Everglades to a more natural state. Engineers quite effectively diverted the flow of water through "the river of grass" in ways that benefited agriculture and development. Since it traditionally is linked to the ecosystem of Florida Bay and affects the barrier reefs of the Keys there were significant changes after the alteration of water flow. There is much more to report on what is happening in South Florida but it is unrelated to the trade.

There is widespread approval of the US Commission on Ocean Policy and their report to Congress. There are chapters that outline suggested actions concerning International trade in MO species. It seems that they would like NOAA (Dept of Fisheries) to administer protections, but without specifying how. http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2004/s2352.htm .

NOAA has been operating under the umbrella of the Dept. of Commerce but it seems that they will soon become an independent agency.

USAID reported that destructive MO collecting continues in SE Asia and that over 400 "inappropriate" (unsuitable) species are being collected for the trade. It was basically the same trade status they have given at the last two meetings. There will be a summary of the proceedings of this meeting posted on the USCRTF website at some point http://coralreef.gov .

I know you are curious about the status of HR 4928, but there was no discussion of this.

 

[dizzy]

John,
Thanks for the report. Is there a list somewhere of the 400 so called unsuitable species that are being traded? What criteria was used to judge them unsuitable? Was it due to declining populations? Or was it failure to live out a natural lifespan in the aquarium?
Mitch

 

[John_Brandt]

The criteria I'm aware of are roughly: failure to thrive, grows too large, poisonous, and rarity (scarcity). I have not seen any reference to a published list, but I suspect this comes from Eric Borneman.

 

[dizzy]

John,
Do you think this list includes corals? Or is it just fish?
Mitch

 

[John_Brandt]

I'm sorry. I should have said it apparently includes invertebrates.