Fiji Livestock Ban: Coral and Rock Exports Halted

[DGee]

Let's get a few things straight here since some of you seem to be misinformed.

WSI IS FIJI! There are no other coral exporters within the Fijian islands, the coral collectors work for Walt, each individual tribe owns their reefs and Walt works in agreement with those locals to collect from specific reefs. All of those tribes have benefited greatly from coral export as well. Things like running water in villages to education.

An outright ban will do nothing but hurt the local Fijian people.

While I was just in Fiji not too long ago a few things were very apparent, the reefs that were in trouble were the ones damaged by cyclones, most every damaged area I dove had one thing in common, hundreds upon hundreds of colonies that had been re-planted by WSI, not for harvest but for the purpose of rebuilding and restoring the damaged reefs. If there ever was a model for re-planting and focusing on the continual health of the reefs in the world they should all be modeled after WSI. I'm good with regulation but a complete ban will only hurt the reefs as well as the local economy.

A further push towards more mariculture would make more sense as well as ceasing the harvesting of wild rock, this has been an issue for quite some time it sounds like. As it reads now they are planning to issue a ZERO quota which in turn would mean ZERO export of Wild OR Mariculture corals. If that's the case we can kiss one of the most responsible operations goodbye. If they want to focus on mariculture then broodstock of some sort must be made available.

For now we will just have to wait and see what happens, hopefully this isn't the end of Fiji coral export as a whole. Cutting the head completely off of WSI will absolutely not benefit the people of Fiji, their reefs, the industry or this hobby.

 

[Cleo642]

Let's get a few things straight here since some of you seem to be misinformed.

WSI IS FIJI! There are no other coral exporters within the Fijian islands, the coral collectors work for Walt, each individual tribe owns their reefs and Walt works in agreement with those locals to collect from specific reefs. All of those tribes have benefited greatly from coral export as well. Things like running water in villages to education.

An outright ban will do nothing but hurt the local Fijian people.

While I was just in Fiji not too long ago a few things were very apparent, the reefs that were in trouble were the ones damaged by cyclones, most every damaged area I dove had one thing in common, hundreds upon hundreds of colonies that had been re-planted by WSI, not for harvest but for the purpose of rebuilding and restoring the damaged reefs. If there ever was a model for re-planting and focusing on the continual health of the reefs in the world they should all be modeled after WSI. I'm good with regulation but a complete ban will only hurt the reefs as well as the local economy.

A further push towards more mariculture would make more sense as well as ceasing the harvesting of wild rock, this has been an issue for quite some time it sounds like. As it reads now they are planning to issue a ZERO quota which in turn would mean ZERO export of Wild OR Mariculture corals. If that's the case we can kiss one of the most responsible operations goodbye. If they want to focus on mariculture then broodstock of some sort must be made available.

For now we will just have to wait and see what happens, hopefully this isn't the end of Fiji coral export as a whole. Cutting the head completely off of WSI will absolutely not benefit the people of Fiji, their reefs, the industry or this hobby.

That's a scary prospect.

 

[Cae]

If water temperatures in Fiji are anything like the great barrier reefs then the coral won't last long in the water. The GBR is predicted to last only another 12 years. I do hope the Fijian government have a plan to combat climate change and poaching. The more people that have corals in their tank, the more species we can save.

 

[TL Reefs]

Well, then the ban is a bad idea. We should harvest the entire reefs and put them in our fish tanks. It's their only chance of survival. Because I'm pretty sure the Fijian government can't combat climate change.

 

[Tristren]

A quote from the minister in charge of fisheries. This was a resolution signed in Germany in November and will come to pass on Jaunary 7th. " but the breaking of corals from the coral reef and regenerating it for export is banned from 2018,” he said." To me that says you can't remove a coral from the reef, put another coral in its place in order to export the harvested coral. The Fiji sun looks to be a legitimate news source, sad day for our hobby.

The full quote there is “We are banning the export of our live corals, unless if they are bred by the exporters, but the breaking of corals from the coral reef and regenerating it for export is banned from 2018,”

So they can export maricultured corals. They are just putting a moratorium on harvesting any new wild corals, even if they are replaced on the reef.

Tony

 

[mjk250]

If water temperatures in Fiji are anything like the great barrier reefs then the coral won't last long in the water. The GBR is predicted to last only another 12 years. I do hope the Fijian government have a plan to combat climate change and poaching. The more people that have corals in their tank, the more species we can save.

I met a reefer a couple days ago, that has a friend that dives in Australia every week (how awesome would that be ) and he said it's a bunch of non-sense of the reef being in that bad of shape (according to the diver), I don't know what to believe anymore. Things are always shown in one light or the other depending on the story they are selling it seems, which is sad. Somebody is spreading fake news but who?????:mad:

 

[ostrow]

Your diver friend is on lsd or has an ulterior motive because he is flat out wring.

 

[sghera64]

If water temperatures in Fiji are anything like the great barrier reefs then the coral won't last long in the water. The GBR is predicted to last only another 12 years. I do hope the Fijian government have a plan to combat climate change and poaching. The more people that have corals in their tank, the more species we can save.

Has anyone seen the Netflix original show called, "Chasing Coral"? It is one of those global extinction documentaries modeled after "Chasing Ice" documenting the decline of polar ice. "Chasing Coral" predicts near total decline of global reefs in 30 years due to increasing ocean temperatures. They videographed several coral gardens undergoing coral bleaching - - as it happened over a 2 month period.

The point I'm raising is Fiji, and maybe other coral based islands, might be trying to save their reefs any way they can - - one way is to keep the corals in place. As I understand it, the problem is climate, and the safest place for these corals may be inland in someone's climate controlled basement.

 

[mjk250]

Your diver friend is on lsd or has an ulterior motive because he is flat out wring.

Not my friend, I was just stating what they said. I haven't been there so I can't report first hand, sadly

 

[Cleo642]

I met a reefer a couple days ago, that has a friend that dives in Australia every week (how awesome would that be ) and he said it's a bunch of non-sense of the reef being in that bad of shape (according to the diver), I don't know what to believe anymore. Things are always shown in one light or the other depending on the story they are selling it seems, which is sad. Somebody is spreading fake news but who?????:mad:

You can't trust the media.

 

[Mark Gray]

I met a reefer a couple days ago, that has a friend that dives in Australia every week (how awesome would that be ) and he said it's a bunch of non-sense of the reef being in that bad of shape (according to the diver), I don't know what to believe anymore. Things are always shown in one light or the other depending on the story they are selling it seems, which is sad. Somebody is spreading fake news but who?????:mad:

I snorkeled in Fiji this year where I was at the reef looked great. Now I did not see much of the reefs in Fiji. But I have see a lot of the reefs in Thailand and the Philippines, they look good evan in the Philippine where they used to use tons of cyanide for fish catching

 

[Tristren]

I met a reefer a couple days ago, that has a friend that dives in Australia every week (how awesome would that be ) and he said it's a bunch of non-sense of the reef being in that bad of shape (according to the diver), I don't know what to believe anymore. Things are always shown in one light or the other depending on the story they are selling it seems, which is sad. Somebody is spreading fake news but who?????:mad:

There is plenty of evidence from a wide wide variety of sources showing the declines. But it is not uniform every where. It may just be that your friend's friend dive in an area that hasn't been affected yet. And he's saying if things are fine on my reef then all of the science and everything must be wrong...

 

[Mark Gray]

Let's get a few things straight here since some of you seem to be misinformed.

WSI IS FIJI! There are no other coral exporters within the Fijian islands, the coral collectors work for Walt, each individual tribe owns their reefs and Walt works in agreement with those locals to collect from specific reefs. All of those tribes have benefited greatly from coral export as well. Things like running water in villages to education.

An outright ban will do nothing but hurt the local Fijian people.

While I was just in Fiji not too long ago a few things were very apparent, the reefs that were in trouble were the ones damaged by cyclones, most every damaged area I dove had one thing in common, hundreds upon hundreds of colonies that had been re-planted by WSI, not for harvest but for the purpose of rebuilding and restoring the damaged reefs. If there ever was a model for re-planting and focusing on the continual health of the reefs in the world they should all be modeled after WSI. I'm good with regulation but a complete ban will only hurt the reefs as well as the local economy.

A further push towards more mariculture would make more sense as well as ceasing the harvesting of wild rock, this has been an issue for quite some time it sounds like. As it reads now they are planning to issue a ZERO quota which in turn would mean ZERO export of Wild OR Mariculture corals. If that's the case we can kiss one of the most responsible operations goodbye. If they want to focus on mariculture then broodstock of some sort must be made available.

For now we will just have to wait and see what happens, hopefully this isn't the end of Fiji coral export as a whole. Cutting the head completely off of WSI will absolutely not benefit the people of Fiji, their reefs, the industry or this hobby.

I 100% agree this will really hurt the people of Fiji

 

[Daniel@R2R]

I guess we'll know more tomorrow...

 

[Cae]

Southern GBR Looks great with only 30% losses but the further north you go up the Queensland coast the hotter the ocean temperature is until yo get up around cape York and there's 80% coral loss. Even the mangroves are all dying around the top end around Darwin. We're losing all our fish nursuries. I hope the Fijian government can put money into aquaculture programs to educate and employ all the locals that will be without any income

 

[DGee]

The full quote there is “We are banning the export of our live corals, unless if they are bred by the exporters, but the breaking of corals from the coral reef and regenerating it for export is banned from 2018,”

So they can export maricultured corals. They are just putting a moratorium on harvesting any new wild corals, even if they are replaced on the reef.

Tony

If that's the case then there needs to be some sort of a Broodstock program implemented, I do find it very strange this just happened out of the blue and the one single coral exporter wasn't notified this was happening or even consulted.

Southern GBR Looks great with only 30% losses but the further north you go up the Queensland coast the hotter the ocean temperature is until yo get up around cape York and there's 80% coral loss. Even the mangroves are all dying around the top end around Darwin. We're losing all our fish nursuries. I hope the Fijian government can put money into aquaculture programs to educate and employ all the locals that will be without any income

I've heard very similar stories from the people I know over there, It's hit or miss but the farther north the more prevalent it is.

 

[MikeA]

Southern GBR Looks great with only 30% losses but the further north you go up the Queensland coast the hotter the ocean temperature is until yo get up around cape York and there's 80% coral loss. Even the mangroves are all dying around the top end around Darwin. We're losing all our fish nursuries. I hope the Fijian government can put money into aquaculture programs to educate and employ all the locals that will be without any income

Is the GBR creeping south? I assume the water is warming in NSW?

Edit for non-antipodeans... NSW = New South Wales in this case.

 

[Maritimer]

The possibility exists, but it may be dying much faster in the north than it can grow in the south.

Here in Connecticut, U.S.A., the lobster and mackerel that were once common are now rarely seen; meanwhile, lafayette drums and black seabass, once a fish of the Middle Atlantic states have become common.

~Bruce

 

[Sir Chris]

It’s a tru shame.. well trained people living off something positive while fish are ok and should really be the opposite I feel. I’ve watched a lot of documentary’s on these farms floating and sunken racks. It’s crazy 2 me and allow poisoning fish to obtain them is ok and not well documented and it harms the econology.

 

[victorcan]

Im sorry but I really think we're al screwed no matter what we do, Global warming is real it is just a lie that man is responsible. This earth has frozen solid and turned tropical oasis many times before man ever walked the planet.. Its just the nature of the beast... Do ya's really think the Dinosaurs ever thought they wouldn't be the apex predator on the planet?? But things happen over and over and over again just the way it is.. In the mean time some people use the basis to misinform the public just to make profit, been that way since the dawn of man and will continue until our extinction. This is why space exploration should be our #1 global priority not fighting one another but we all know theres more money in war than to save a species. How much did the world spend on Military funding over the last 20 years? Hell do the math we could have had outposts on Venus and mars already with a saltwater tank in each colonists home if we used our finances better. But oh well here comes the onslaught of followers who would disagree. See the TRUTH it will set you free!