The Owner Of An Lfs I Frequent Just Told Me Tonga Is Not Releasing Any More Branch? Did Anyone Else Hear This.
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Thats odd. Did it just get really depleted?
Thats exactly what happened. There has been a huge demand for Tonga branch over the last couple of years. Now it's to the point of high demand, low supply.
I have been told from distributors that it might be a couple of years before it is able to be collected again.
This same thing will happen to Australian coral again. So, for those that have extremely nice colonies, hold onto them.......
This is old news....
This is old news....went into effect on September 24, 2007. Here is Cites official document on that matter but nothing has come out of Tonga for over a year and probably not going to for some time or at least until the tribes stop fighting with export operations. It was shut down not because it was depleted but they have been rebuilding their reefs since this ban went into effect... still need money from tourism.=)
Subject: Competent Management and Scientific Authorities for CITES Documents
Background: The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) requires each CITES Party country to designate a Management Authority and a Scientific Authority for, among other things, issuance of CITES documents. The treaty also requires each non-Party country to have competent authorities that can issue comparable CITES documentation. U.S. CITES regulations that went into effect on September 24, 2007 require the Party or non-Party issuing CITES documents to have designated a Management Authority and a Scientific Authority and communicated such designations to the CITES Secretariat. Such authorities must be competent to make the required legal and biological findings in order to issue valid CITES documents.
As of April 30, 2008, the following countries had not provided information to the CITES Secretariat on their designated Management Authority and/or Scientific Authority:
Afghanistan, Andorra, Angola, Armenia, Bahrain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cape Verde, Cook Islands, Eritrea, Haiti, Holy See, Kiribati, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Montenegro, Nauru, Niue, Oman, Timor-Leste, TONGA, Turkmenistan and Tuvalu.
Action: The United States will not allow the import of CITES-listed specimens from countries that have not designated a competent Management Authority and Scientific Authority and communicated such designations to the CITES Secretariat. Any such shipments will be subject to seizure and forfeiture because of invalid CITES documents. The trade can check for updated information on these designations at: http://www.cites.org/common/directy/e_directy.html.