So it seems lots of people who order maricultured gulf/keys rock from the various vendors end up with some otherwise illegal hard corals. My question is what can somebody do and not do with said corals?
I know that it is normally illegal to collect and sell these corals, but somehow these vendors are allowed to legally collect rock with protected corals on it from their own artificial reefs on plots of land.
From the perspective of the hobbyist buying the rock and getting, say, some occulina diffusa, what are they legally allowed to do? Can they frag and trade it? Sell it? GIve it away? Not do anything with it? What if they had two and got a successful spawn? If they decided to leave the hobby and sell all their rock do they have to destroy the rock with corals on it? Do the live rock harvesters (kpa, glr, tbs, etc.) Have special licenses that allow them to do this or is it simply the captive collection methods? Is there something written somewhere about all the laws and regulations around this?
I know that it is normally illegal to collect and sell these corals, but somehow these vendors are allowed to legally collect rock with protected corals on it from their own artificial reefs on plots of land.
From the perspective of the hobbyist buying the rock and getting, say, some occulina diffusa, what are they legally allowed to do? Can they frag and trade it? Sell it? GIve it away? Not do anything with it? What if they had two and got a successful spawn? If they decided to leave the hobby and sell all their rock do they have to destroy the rock with corals on it? Do the live rock harvesters (kpa, glr, tbs, etc.) Have special licenses that allow them to do this or is it simply the captive collection methods? Is there something written somewhere about all the laws and regulations around this?