Fiji Livestock Ban: Coral and Rock Exports Halted
- Thread starter MikeA
- Start date
- Tagged users None
Well my tank is full so this will not affect my tank however there are a lot of frags available and most of the lfs carry the wild colonies cant sell it because reefer now a day dont buy colonies. So the only thing really hurt is u cant get the nice real live rock anymore
I think that one thing that everyone can agree on is that this was a major slap in the face to Walt Smith International. They are among the most established, respected, and responsible companies in this industry and they weren't even consulted, at all.
DGee
Active Member
What saddens me is the fact that this wasn't phased in and people who survive on the industry there had this thrown in their lap. My heart goes out to the local Fijians who were blind sided and lost their jobs. Getting to know many of those involved at WSI when I was last in Fiji makes it a little more personal I guess, the people at WSI genuinely care about their reefs and are good people, they aren't some evil group smashing the reefs up with hammers for profit. It's sad to see one of the best models for sustainable collection targeted and not even consulted when making such a huge decision.
Myself and the industry will survive without Fiji corals, my best guess is that Australia is next and others will follow suit.
Myself and the industry will survive without Fiji corals, my best guess is that Australia is next and others will follow suit.
Coastie Reefer
Valuable Member
And what Walt has built and established is a detriment to the environment how?
Yea Walt even puts back corals on the reef. He has done so much good for the hobby.
With Hawaii and now this though our hobby is under assault. Fiji area is where almost all live rock comes from and lots of corals.. Allot of other places will most likely follow though. This really could be the begging of the end for part of the hobby.
drawman
2500 Club Member
This is a shame... No Cites means no corals, mariculture or wild.
+1 I'm all for management but it seems like private industry was doing a great job in this instance. I doubt the government there will be able to invest as much in terms of resources.
Sarcasm soapbox moment warning. With all of the big industry that is involved in any way shape or form with the ocean, with all the pollution caused by these industries, etc etc....but...it's the aquarium industry that we have to watch out for...give me a break. I'm sorry but in this instance, there's really no solid footing for any kind of "saving the environment" argument.
Take a large coral mother colony for instance - a large part of that will be skeleton. Now break that up into 1000 pieces and put 100 back in the ocean such that it forms 100 new colonies. Those colonies will grow faster than the mother colony they came from. That's a vast oversimplification I'm sure but essentially that's what sustainable reefing is.
Fiji is doing more harm by not allowing sustainable collection by companies like WSI. This is akin to now allowing clearing of dead growth from a forest because of the desire to have some wilderness that is untouched. Then a forest fire comes through and wipes it all out because of all that fuel there...again, not a direct comparison, but I'm sure there is a similar one.
/soapbox
Sarcasm is still engaged however.
Take a large coral mother colony for instance - a large part of that will be skeleton. Now break that up into 1000 pieces and put 100 back in the ocean such that it forms 100 new colonies. Those colonies will grow faster than the mother colony they came from. That's a vast oversimplification I'm sure but essentially that's what sustainable reefing is.
Fiji is doing more harm by not allowing sustainable collection by companies like WSI. This is akin to now allowing clearing of dead growth from a forest because of the desire to have some wilderness that is untouched. Then a forest fire comes through and wipes it all out because of all that fuel there...again, not a direct comparison, but I'm sure there is a similar one.
/soapbox
Sarcasm is still engaged however.
Cleo642
2500 Club Member
Sad to see all of this. I feel bad for Walt Smith and his employees right now.
IMO there should be a way to work together on this.
That Fuji is shutting it down could be a fact in the next couple of days and CITES will be written.
What we don't want is a Lacey-act, to even be illegal to captive grow these corals from the reef.
Many long time hobbyist always wonder how long can this will go on??
As Hawaii did shut down the fisheries but already had in place a CITES and Lace-act 100% on there corals it's not so strange why this is happening in other parts of the world.
This has nothing to do with climate change or pollution of the reef.
IMO simply Fuji would like to have a bigger stake into this business and as of now it's out of control.
I'm also closely bonded to the Dendro hobby (frogs) and this is happening for years already and in the US there are ppl arrested for having illegal frogs in possession, even though they claim that the frogs have been bred in captivity, simple cause the US exercise the law how it's written in the
lacey-act.
I always been a big supporter from purchasing aqua grown corals.
R2R is the leading online reef forum, if we keep our heads cool and leave this to some intelligent hobbyist that know what they up against to it will be not so bad that we might still enjoy the maricultered part of the Fuji Islands.
If we don't it might work all against us.
Some comment.
That Fuji is shutting it down could be a fact in the next couple of days and CITES will be written.
What we don't want is a Lacey-act, to even be illegal to captive grow these corals from the reef.
Many long time hobbyist always wonder how long can this will go on??
As Hawaii did shut down the fisheries but already had in place a CITES and Lace-act 100% on there corals it's not so strange why this is happening in other parts of the world.
This has nothing to do with climate change or pollution of the reef.
IMO simply Fuji would like to have a bigger stake into this business and as of now it's out of control.
I'm also closely bonded to the Dendro hobby (frogs) and this is happening for years already and in the US there are ppl arrested for having illegal frogs in possession, even though they claim that the frogs have been bred in captivity, simple cause the US exercise the law how it's written in the
lacey-act.
I always been a big supporter from purchasing aqua grown corals.
R2R is the leading online reef forum, if we keep our heads cool and leave this to some intelligent hobbyist that know what they up against to it will be not so bad that we might still enjoy the maricultered part of the Fuji Islands.
If we don't it might work all against us.
Some comment.
Last edited:
Um...yes it does - the Prime Minister in Fiji is on the forefront of that precise issue and apparently sees reefkeeping as a threat
https://cop23.com.fj/
Then there is this statement
So this recent move could be taken to be highly hypocritical considering that WSI is about the only company that harvests from the reefs in Fiji, there's no other company or companies that are "running rampant" and destroying reefs via collection, and WSI (as has been mentioned already many times in this thread) is a model for sustainable reefkeeping = sustainable development. This, at a time when it is actually probably needed the most after cyclone Winston which undoubtedly wiped out sections of coral reefs, and I'd bet money that those sections that were wiped out were re-seeded with frags from WSI. Who wants to take me up on that bet.
This is a total joke and this is why I'm against unilateral closed-minded action in the name of climate change. This is a perfect example of total and utter disregard for anything logical, all in the name of saving to the earth...when it's the actual opposite.
Myk
Aquatic Creations www.ReefDelivery.com
I fail to see how anyone could find this to be a good thing. The A.D.E. program actually puts back 90% of what is maricultured! Only approx. 1 in 10 is sent back to the aquarium trade. Shutting this down is a disaster for the people of Fiji, their economy and for the environment around them. Prayers go out to the Fijians and Walt Smith as they work to find a way through this.
Excerpts from this article: http://fijisun.com.fj/2018/01/03/over-60-workers-laid-off-from-coral-company/
Emphasis added
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
In 1998 Walt Smith developed the first coral farm by taking small clippings from larger colonies of live coral and planting them into specially designed plugs that he designed and manufactured at his export facility in Lautoka.
The plugs were then attached to iron racks placed on the sea bed for a period of time to grow.
Once the growth was noticeable (about three months), they were then transplanted to the nearby reef.
Since that time more than 1,500,000 new corals have been planted in various locations in the Yasawa Islands, Vanua Levu and recently the Mamanuca group.
Every year, in late October to early November, the planted corals spawn yielding an unprecedented number of offspring and creating generation upon generation of new coral clones on the reef.
According to WSI, it was noticed that some of these clones were showing resilience to global warming.
The company said this was evidenced on a large farm site in the North where a completely dead reef had been rejuvenated with thousands of newly planted coral over the last five years with some reaching over a meter high and that the fish population has returned.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Emphasis added
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
In 1998 Walt Smith developed the first coral farm by taking small clippings from larger colonies of live coral and planting them into specially designed plugs that he designed and manufactured at his export facility in Lautoka.
The plugs were then attached to iron racks placed on the sea bed for a period of time to grow.
Once the growth was noticeable (about three months), they were then transplanted to the nearby reef.
Since that time more than 1,500,000 new corals have been planted in various locations in the Yasawa Islands, Vanua Levu and recently the Mamanuca group.
Every year, in late October to early November, the planted corals spawn yielding an unprecedented number of offspring and creating generation upon generation of new coral clones on the reef.
According to WSI, it was noticed that some of these clones were showing resilience to global warming.
The company said this was evidenced on a large farm site in the North where a completely dead reef had been rejuvenated with thousands of newly planted coral over the last five years with some reaching over a meter high and that the fish population has returned.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Myk
Aquatic Creations www.ReefDelivery.com
Similar threads
Aquariums Dry Rock Drygoods
150 pounds of Fiji dry rock, 125 gallon system and 75 gallon system - $400 -Atlanta
- Price: 400
- Shipping NOT Available
