Can my friend in Canada mail me frags to the USA?

[GlassMunky]

As the title says, I’m looking to see if anyone here the USA has ever had corals shipped to them from Canada? Specifically from an individual, not a shop.
I have a buddy in Canada with a real nice tank and he has some beautiful SPS that I just don’t see down here in the states. We got to talking about maybe sending some frags down my way but then the talk of US Customs came into play, and neither of us have ever tried, so we weren’t sure if it was doable, and if it was, what kind of rules we would need to follow.
Anyone have any info on this?

 

[JoshH]

I would say your best bet would be to ship them to the border and pick them up from there, it's a 12ish hour round trip to buffalo/Niagara falls and back. Your friend could fill out all the required paperwork and it could still take days to get through customs in a package. You could alternatively ask them to drive across the border and ship from there... I've wanted to do the opposite for years as the coral/fish selection up here is rather limited...

 

[GlassMunky]

I would say your best bet would be to ship them to the border and pick them up from there, it's a 12ish hour round trip to buffalo/Niagara falls and back. Your friend could fill out all the required paperwork and it could still take days to get through customs in a package. You could alternatively ask them to drive across the border and ship from there... I've wanted to do the opposite for years as the coral/fish selection up here is rather limited...

I’m not exactly sure how that’d work....
he lives in Victoria BC, and I’m in philly so our borders aren’t exactly close to one another.

 

[JoshH]

I’m not exactly sure how that’d work....
he lives in Victoria BC, and I’m in philly so our borders aren’t exactly close to one another.

That's actually better, he's VERY close to the Canadian/US border. He could just drive across into the US then overnight ship them from whichever US town is close to him... or he could overnight ship them to Niagara Falls on the Canadian side and you could pick them up there then drive across the border yourself (Yes you'd be looking at a 12+ hour drive) but you could spend the weekend in Niagara Falls and enjoy the scenery. At this point it comes down to how badly you want them... but either option is still infinitely better than the corals sitting in customs for days...

 

[GlassMunky]

That's actually better, he's VERY close to the Canadian/US border. He could just drive across into the US then overnight ship them from whichever US town is close to him... or he could overnight ship them to Niagara Falls on the Canadian side and you could pick them up there then drive across the border yourself. At this point it comes down to how badly you want them... but either option is still infinitely better than the corals sitting in customs for days...

The question of customs still comes into play tho. Am I even able to bring corals back into the USA if I go to pick them up across the border? Or if he goes to cross the border to mail them to me, is he allowed to cross the border with those animals?

 

[Katrina71]

I was gonna tag ya, but you already jumped in! @JoshH

 

[JoshH]

The question of customs still comes into play tho. Am I even able to bring corals back into the USA if I go to pick them up across the border? Or if he goes to cross the border to mail them to me, is he allowed to cross the border with those animals?

You are absolutely allowed to bring them across the border without a mountain of paperwork or none atall. The big difference is customs sees them immediately and clears them when your driving. I've spoken to a few people who have even flown back to Canada with corals in hand. They cleared customs at the airport and went on there merry way.

 

[andrewkw]

You 100% need cites to transport stony corals across the border. Only soft corals are legal without cites.

 

[GlassMunky]

Just a single area of his awesome tank, and why I want some frags lol

 

[JoshH]

You 100% need cites to transport stony corals across the border. Only soft corals are legal without cites.

Just a bit of permit paperwork no? Shouldn't be the end of the world to attain an export permit. Certainly makes a little more work. Thanks for chiming in @andrewkw First time I've read up on cites, lots of interesting stuff. And now that you've mentioned it all the corals I've heard been transported were all softy corals. Makes a lot more sense now

 

[GlassMunky]

Any links to the proper info or paperwork that would be needed to try and bring them back?

 

[JoshH]

I'm not sure if he would JUST need a Re-Export permit (Obviously they were imported into Canada at some point). Or if you would need something for import as well, I'm also not sure if Stony coral lands under Live animal or plant classification. There is a contact email near the bottom of that page I'm sure you could send an email off to for more insight.

Import or export of live animals: application forms - Canada.ca

Application forms for Re-exports and Permit Renewals

www.canada.ca

 

[andrewkw]

You should talk to LFS that a) Import their own corals b) You are already friendly with for advice. You could probably get some of the bigger retailers on R2R to chime in too. I would speculate it would only be worth it if you were buying a ton of stuff not a few frags. Back in the earlier days of Australian export the good stuff all came to Canada and there were US retailers shopping in Canada but they were buying very large and quantities. Of course I never asked how the process worked for them just an observation I made seeing people with shirts of store names I'd seen online ect.

Every once in a while you see / hear of some individual "smuggling" corals in, by smuggling I mean they declare them and confused border guards let them through. I have imported fish before, both at the border where I declared them and that was the end of that, and had them shipped directly - this was a long time ago but the seller completed all the brokerage work. Of course I did not need a permit to import them into Canada but there was still a bunch of paperwork.

Never once have I heard of an individual actually going through with completing the paperwork. This is almost 15 years of seeing occasional posts like this on forums. I'm not saying it hasn't happened, I've just personally never seen anyone post about it. If it were easy and cheap people would do this all the time both ways (Canada to US, US to Canada).

 

[Mikosreef]

So has anyone truly brought in any stoney corals successfully with all the permits?

 

[AlexH]

You 100% need cites to transport stony corals across the border. Only soft corals are legal without cites.

Hi there...I am looking for information about bringing 1-3 large dead soft corals (gorgonias, I believe) with me when I am traveling by plane from Indonesia (where I live), to the US (where I'm from)....I always thought this was completely illegal (which it still might be), but my friend who is very knowledgeable about corals said that soft corals were basically "sticks of the sea" and were not endangered.....so now I am wondering if it IS legal for me to hand-carry 1-3 large specimens with me when I am traveling. I am trying to find information about this, but it has proven tricky....are you (or anyone else in this thread), able to help point me in the right direction regarding if this is possible? And if it is, what paperwork, if any, that I would need to fill out? Thanks in advance!!!