Indonesia coral export halted?

[revhtree]

Hearing rumors that coral exports from Indonesia has been shut down. Any info on that?

 

[Turbo's Aquatics]

After Fiji got shut down again, I wouldn’t be surprised

 

[shred5]

Hawaii was shut down for fish and heard Walt got shut down again. This would be a major blow after Hawaii.

 

[revhtree]

One of my FB friends just said this:

Saw this and just messaged an exporter I know in Jakarta. He said it is true, starting today, came without warning.

 

[revhtree]

Kris Kline said this..

From my main Jakarta exporter: Hey Kris it is still a rumor at this point because we still can ship today and health certificate is still being issued. We have formally inquire to the govt and they are not sure yet as well where that news come from. At this point please do not worry yet.

 

[ArialReef]

I live in Indonesia and that is probably true. Or at least will be. I'll try to get some information from local reefers.

 

[Duncan's n' Dendros]

There Is absolutely nothing anywhere. No information about Walt. Some people need to find something to do.

 

[randy4083]

This all is crazy and pretty soon everything is gonna be all tank raised and some stuff they can't tank raise so some stuff will be out of the picture soon the way everything sounds and that stinks for everyone

 

[reefwiser]

Posted on Facebook this morning.

 

[shred5]

There Is absolutely nothing anywhere. No information about Walt. Some people need to find something to do.

What your source? I went to order Rock form a supplier I was told Walt was shut down again. I do not know what reason he had to lie.
I would also tend to believe Floyd before someone who has one post.

 

[shred5]

Also it looks like reading the above it may just be temporary for Indonesia.

 

[revhtree]

Posted on Facebook this morning.

Just read this as well.

 

[erky]

only going to make this hobby more of a unique thing to be apart of, but going to make prices of aquacultured go up id imagine.

 

[shred5]

only going to make this hobby more of a unique thing to be apart of, but going to make prices of aquacultured go up id imagine.

I do not think this is as bad as the Hawaii shut down. I do not think people realise how many fish come from there especially to the USA. Almost all yellow tangs which are the most imported tang. Corals are easy to propagate and allot of saltwater fish are not especially tangs since they spawn in massive groups and broadcast spawn. Who wants a tank with no fish. Yea people may go well I may just buy another fish but this puts pressure on other fish causing their prices to rise.

 

[Turbo's Aquatics]

Walt Smith got shut down 3 times. We only really heard a lot about the first one, which got reversed temporarily, but then it got shut down 2 more times. The last one was after promises were made and then broken (by the government). Now the only way that WSI could get back open again is by doing an impact study and some other study that would take 4 months, which is something they were promised would not be the case.

It immediately put them out of business. Science, logic, and common sense, in the end, did not prevail.

 

[JaimeAdams]

Yes, I just woke up to messages on my phone about this. This one hurts. This is not comparable to Hawaii. Hawaii banned certain catching practices, but you can still collect. This is what happened in Fiji before they decided to reissue permits. I don't think most people outside of the business have any idea of just how much coral comes from Indonesia! I would say that 90+% of the coral that I sell at work comes from Jakarta, whether bought through a domestic wholesaler or brokered from point of origin.

This change really only leaves Australia, but the problem there is the pricing. Aussie corals are just really much more expensive. Don't get me wrong they are nice coral, but they are not small business bread and butter retail shop selling to beginner type priced coral. I guess you also have Fiji Mericulture, but that is mostly Acropora, once again not the biggest seller to the majority of hobbyists. I know we on the forums and in our data mining see Acros being strongly sought, but in the retail market it is a much smaller segment of the hobby. I guess we may or may not have Fiji, but I guess at this point we do not.

All the threads complaining about the price of coral just got more interesting. At this point I am sitting here worried about the thousands of people who are going to be out of jobs both domestic and abroad. I am thinking that we are heading to a market where everything is Aquacultured domestically, people complain about the size and price of most vendors coral frags, but I just see those prices going up with increased demand. Small businesses such as the one that I work at will be hit very hard. We make a living by buying and reselling mostly collected or Mericultured coral for a decent markup. The price point on wholesale Aquaculture does not leave much room for markup.

 

[shred5]

Walt Smith got shut down 3 times. We only really heard a lot about the first one, which got reversed temporarily, but then it got shut down 2 more times. The last one was after promises were made and then broken (by the government). Now the only way that WSI could get back open again is by doing an impact study and some other study that would take 4 months, which is something they were promised would not be the case.

It immediately put them out of business. Science, logic, and common sense, in the end, did not prevail.

Ouch I heard about the 3 times never heard he was out of business. Well that explains why he went completely silent.
That is a blow to almost all live rock since it comes through Fiji. It put a blow to allot of aquacultured corals too. Even hurts like TampaBay saltwater since they get their 2.0 rock from him.



Science, logic, and common sense, in the end, did not prevail is the same thing with Hawaii.

I mean Walt put stuff back on the reef. He was helping the situation on the reef and the economy. Allot of his stuff was aqua-cultured and rock was man-made.

 

[TerraFerma]

From the sound of the letter it seems the agencies responsible for coral export oversight don't feel they can do their respective jobs properly at the moment and need a timeout to regroup, perhaps shake out some folks that are getting extracurricular income. Thing are pretty fast fast and loose in Indo and there have certainly been many, many coral's "legally" exported that were never on their CITIES list. Not to say they haven't added them now. But it's supposed to literally be only the exact species, in exact quantities, that can be exported. Since we can hardly ID things like meat corals and chalices I don't know how they were ever doing that in the first place on their end.

I'm sure Dr. Mac can give everyone the low down once he deals with what I assume is a pretty lousy Friday for him!

Plus, on a larger, scale, we can't keep hauling non maricultured coral out of the ocean forever. I don't think that will end now. Maybe not even in the next decade. But at some point the party is going to end. Given the Green's presence in Australia its a miracle they let us import any corals from them.

 

[VR28man]

This is very unfortunate.

As I said before, I don’t think many people really appreciate the tenacity that some “environmental” organizations (I’m told really just a group of lawyers and media consultant) are targeting this hobby.

I really think it’s because were easy target, compared to commercial or recreational fishery.

And all kinds of other bans like are frequently proposed, some of which fortunately are countered. But still there are some hobbyists you don’t think there’s a problem. See this other thread, where USFWS essentially (as i understand it) considered banning giant clams:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/giant-clams-could-have-been-banned-in-2016.386018/#post-4686169

 

[shred5]

From the sound of the letter it seems the agencies responsible for coral export oversight don't feel they can do their respective jobs properly at the moment and need a timeout to regroup, perhaps shake out some folks that are getting extracurricular income. Thing are pretty fast fast and loose in Indo and there have certainly been many, many coral's "legally" exported that were never on their CITIES list. Not to say they haven't added them now. But it's supposed to literally be only the exact species, in exact quantities, that can be exported. Since we can hardly ID things like meat corals and chalices I don't know how they were ever doing that in the first place on their end.

I'm sure Dr. Mac can give everyone the low down once he deals with what I assume is a pretty lousy Friday for him!

Plus, on a larger, scale, we can't keep hauling non maricultured coral out of the ocean forever. I don't think that will end now. Maybe not even in the next decade. But at some point the party is going to end. Given the Green's presence in Australia its a miracle they let us import any corals from them.

The problem with shut downs is like what most likely happened to Walt is the margins are low and they go out of business quick. There was a post on FB about that too.. Even if Hawaii would open by some miracle it may be too late for some.