HR 4928 will ban the import of live rock

[naesco]

SECTION 2 STATES

5) International trade in coral, other reef invertebrates, reef fish, live rock, and other coral products contributes to the decline and degradation of reefs, primarily through the use of destructive collection practices, overexploitation of resources, loss of reef habitat, and introduction of non-indigenous species, invasive species, and pathogens.

(6) The United States is the largest importer of live coral, live rock, and marine fish for the aquarium trade and of coral skeletons and precious corals for souvenirs and jewelry.

(7) The harvest of live coral and wild live rock is of special concern because it removes essential components of reef habitats, increases erosion, and damages critical fisheries habitat.

SECTION 4 SUBSECTION 2 STATES

2) DESTRUCTIVE COLLECTION PRACTICES- For the purposes of this Act, `destructive collection practice' means any practice used in the take of coral reef species which includes any of the following:

(A) Reef-dredging

 

[naesco]

I would recommend that industry whole-heartedly adopt the ban on live rock as a show of good faith towards reeform.

Once sustainability areas are identified by MAC, fishers could gather loose live rock under approved harvesting regulations.

In the meantime allowance could be granted to 'seed rock' and certified aquacultured rock from Fiji and other areas.

 

[John_Brandt]

Wayne, why not enact reformed and managed collection plans as a modification to existing practices without implementing a ban?

Why put hundreds of friendly Fijians out of work only to try to recall them later?

I've got humanitarianism on the brain; maybe that's just me.

 

[naesco]

John I think that is fair comment. I agree.

Unlike the Philippines and Indonesia you do not have a cyanide problem there.

Any idea how quickly MAC can act on the issue.

It would appear to me that the live rock issue would be a lot simpler than the fish issue.

Again it is the responsibility of industry there and stateside to meet now and set out the criteria, timeline etc. to avoid government intervention both in Fiji and in the US.
It is my opinion that industry will continue to be in denial and do nothing.

 

[PeterIMA]

Wayne and John,

What has this got to do with humanitarianism or logic? To regulate the MO trade, and the trades in coral and liverock, the U.S. government first needs to make these trades "illegal". Hence, we have the proposed legislation (H.R. 4928). Only then can they regulate these trades by making "exceptions". So far, I have not seen a plan by which this could be done without shutting down all of these trades (at least temporarily).

Peter Rubec

 

[dizzy]

The following areas are certified:
FIJI

Walt Smith International Ltd. (Matacaucau)
Matacaucau Village, Kings Highway
Namalata District, Tailevu Province, Fiji Islands
Tel. +679 3430141/3430110

Walt Smith International Ltd. (Namada)
Namada Village, Queens Highway
Korolevu-i-wai District,
Nadroga/Navosa Province
Fiji Islands
Tel. +679 6500491

Walt Smith International Ltd. (Vatukarasa)
Vatukarasa Village, Queens Highway
Conua District, Nadroga/Navosa Province, Fiji Islands
Tel. +679 6500192

Walt Smith International Ltd. (Vitogo, Naviti, Marou)
Lautoka
Ba Province, Fiji Islands
Tel. +679 666045

I would think that all the rock coming out of these areas was being harvested in a sustainable manner. I mean how could they have been certifed in the first place if that was not the case? :? Still Walt is going to cut harvest by 20% per year until he switches over to all aquacultured stuff five years from now. Why do you suppose Walt is doing this?
Mitch

 

[Fish_dave]

Over the past 4 years there have been numerous studies done on the live rock collection in Fiji. It has been determined that with a proper management plan it is sustainable. Walt has a very good and detailed management plan. The MAC is aware of this and has signed off on it as sustainable. Walt's facility and products can produce MAC certified product. The problem is getting it to the few retailers who are MAC certified. At present Walt does not ship to a MAC certified facility in the states so the product can not be MAC certified as the chain of custody in the certification chain will be broken. It is a bottle neck right now that I am sure MAC is working on.

Walt is willing to phase out live rock collection and switch over to cultured product because he feels that the cultured product is viable as a replacement and he is years ahead of anyone else in producing it. If Fiji were to ban the wild live rock collection it would not hurt Walt if he is up to speed on his cultured rock production. 5 years should get him to the point that he can replace all of his rock production with cultured rock. This would also eliminate all of the small rock companies in Fiji who are shipping rock now with no management plan in place and no proof that it is being done sustainably. Not everyone in the trade likes Walt but I think that he has proven to have taken the high road on this issue. He has spent a huge amount of money to develop a proven management plan and is willing to phase out all wild collection in 5 years. Seems pretty reasonable to me.

Dave

 

[dizzy]

Dave what percentage of live rock that is coming out of Fiji is being collected and shipped by someone other than Walt? Since live rock is regulated under CITES this information should be easy to obtain.
Mitch

 

[Fish_dave]

Mitch,

Getting the figures for a CITES product is possible but is not all that easy, especially current figures. There are I think three other exporters shipping rock out of Fiji besides Walt. One of them is very irregular, two are pretty consistant. I would guess that Walt is doing 60 % of the rock out of Fiji but it is just a guess with no figures to back it up with. Fiji fisheries could give us exact numbers if they were needed for some reason.

Dave

 

[Fish_dave]

Mitch,

Another issue is that not all of the CITES partys have agreed on whether live rock is covered by the CITES regulations. Exports to the states have to come in under CITES permits but exports to Europe do not require CITES documentation. There is still some issues amoung the CITES parties about the definition of live rock and whether it fits under the scleractinia classification.

Dave

 

[Anonymous]

At present Walt does not ship to a MAC certified facility in the states so the product can not be MAC certified as the chain of custody in the certification chain will be broken.

I know of at least one store that is taking Walt rock shipments and is currently working toward its MAC certification. So for what little (if anything) I know, this statement is true in its current form.

 

[naesco]

Wayne and John,

What has this got to do with humanitarianism or logic? To regulate the MO trade, and the trades in coral and liverock, the U.S. government first needs to make these trades "illegal". Hence, we have the proposed legislation (H.R. 4928). Only then can they regulate these trades by making "exceptions". So far, I have not seen a plan by which this could be done without shutting down all of these trades (at least temporarily).

Dr. Rubec IMO the main problem is cyanide and that means the Philippines and Indonesia.

In the perfect world I would like to see an immediate ban on the export of fish from those countries. They would than have to make the necessary changes to get back into the export area.
Sustainability is the issue in the other countries and it would be unfair to penalize them with an immediate ban as they are net caught suppliers.
It is for that reason that I agreed with John.
I will agree that unless industry does something about reeform immediately ALL will be lost.

 

[JennM]

But Wayne, that bill would ban imports from everywhere. The stateside effects of this notwithstanding, there are plenty of places that harvest fish with nets... you would throw the baby out with the bathwater by not addressing the problem areas, just tarring everybody with the same brush?

And what becomes of the fishermen? They switch to another crop is all. Doesn't do a darned thing for the reefs, just changes the pressure, and more people will be vying for the same food-fish.

Jenn

 

[mkirda]

I've got humanitarianism on the brain; maybe that's just me.

Nope, combo of Humanitarianism and Environmentalism.
That's me.

 

[mkirda]

there are plenty of places that harvest fish with nets...

Even nets paid for by Wayne!

The irony is too much.
Here's your net.
Here's your pink slip.
Have a nice day!

Mike

 

[Kalkbreath]

There is more then meets the eye concerning shipping wild rock out of Fiji. Take for instance that the largest airline flying out of fiji folded and closed down a few months ago. Meaning, overnite more then half the airplains stopped coming to Fiji. The cargo space availible out of Fiji is less then half as large as it was last year. Exporters are being forced to decide between coral, MO fish , live rock , Kava or tuna........Tuna always has first seating Kava when in season and Whom ever owes the airlines the least amount of back payment gets to ship their product . If forces limit the variety of productstry to be exported , then that leaves more room for the other products. :wink:

 

[dizzy]

kalk,
If what you are saying is true then it makes no since for Walt to have his cultured rock efforts based in Fiji. The biggest advantage I can see for his rock is that it is light weight compared to some of the cultured stuff others are currently using. Why go all the way to Fiji to do something that can be done much closer to the US mainland where good shipping routes do exist? If anything like nice corals did begin to grow on the rock cultured in Fiji, it would all die during the long dry shipping period. I think Walt may be acting a little foolhardy to be encouraging the shutdown of the harvest of live rock if it is truly sustainable. For an investment of a little over 20K someone can buy a concrete foaming machine and make light weight concrete rocks much closer to the demand side. The Keys, The Bahamas, or any of the Caribbean islands, and possibly Mexico all come to mind. IMO the advantage Fiji has with the abundance of a sustainable live rock supply will be lost, if cultured rock is the only product that can be sold on the marketplace.
Mitch

 

[JT]

I've said this before concerning AquaCultured Live Rock. I'll support Pacific AquaCultured live rock whenever possible. IME, with Atlantic rock you simply do not get the variety of invertebrates and micro fauna like you do on Pacific rock. Plus, I don't want Atlantic hitchhikers coming in when I am doing a reef tank with Pacific corals. But, maybe I guess I am too much of a geek sometimes.

 

[dizzy]

I've got 10 display tanks full of Pacific live rock and two curing tubs. Outside the occasional nusiance crab I never seen much of any type of invertebrate life that survives the rough handling. Sometimes the macro algae or sponges survive or comes back, but it just makes it hard to place corals where you want them. I believe macros belong in a refugium and not so much in the main tank anyway. What species of coral do you expect to get in alive as a hitchhiker on the cultured rock that is shipped dry? I think you can just ship those types of coral alive in water anyway, and you will get the starter cultures of micro fauna along for the ride. I think doing the frag growout and clam farming in countries of origin makes sense, but the live rock is much less important in that regard.

JT I think you must be confusing the Tampa Bay live rock with what I was suggesting. I remember when it was about all you saw back in the mid 80s. The rock came from the deep murky green water found in the bay. It was full of mantis shrimps, crabs, christmas tree worms, and sponges. Other than the crabs and mantis shrimps most of the low light stuff just died off under intense reef tank lighting. Let me be clear that I am not suggesting that I think Tampa Bay is where the culturing should be done. I'm not crazy about the cultured stuff I have seen from there. I think it should be done in clear blue waters of the Caribbean. If done there I think it would rival anything that will survive the dry shipping from Fiji. Perhaps it could even be shipped wet and some legal Atlantic corals could enter the trade. It won't take a genius to set up a Caribbean based operation somewhere that could out compete the expensive freight from Fiji. Also bear in mind that the Fiji cultured is currently being artificially kept below fair market value to compete with the wild stuff. When the wild collection is banned the cost of cultured will go way up. It has too.
Mitch

 

[Fish_dave]

I have read this post from Kalk before about the largest airline in Fiji folding. I do not know what he is talking about. Air Pacific is Fiji's national carrier and the only international airline based in Fiji and they did not fold, in fact they have added routes recently. Air New Zealand is also a major carrier out of Fiji and they have certainly not folded. Walt generally uses Air New Zealand for transport due to their better reliability but he does use Air Pacific on occasion. I use Air Pacific regularly when we have a flight from the Solomons to Fiji. Air Pacific just signed a contract to begin service between the Solomons and Fiji on a weekly basis on Thursdays. They are expanding, not folding. Space from Fiji has increase by 30% this year. A couple of rock exporters in Fiji are having trouble getting freight space due to past due bills. Maybe this is where the rumour of reduced freight space came from ?

Dave