Transporting coral after attending a show via an Airline

[vetteguy53081]

As RAP Orlando is around the corner and will be followed by RAP New York, how many of us have attended such shows and had to resort to bringing fish and/or coral home?

If you have, please describe for others, what measures you had to take if any to accomplish this, what hassles if any you had to contend with and how you were able to get them aboard and aircraft and clear TSA and at what cost if any.

 

[williamCreery]

TSA isn’t so bad… it definitely is nice to take it with you instead of over night shipping it… I’ve always had an officer take roll of inspection… if not always be the first to say “I need an inspection TSA Officer… there’s always one around.
They will do what needs to be done regardless of packaging… they’ll take everything out… sniff some… mostly all the bags… (that’s what they did for my inspection) and even a dog in the room in to pick up any odor that alerts them… once everything checks out, you can pack everything back in order in the cooler and be on your way safe travels and enjoy the show

And bring some extra rubber bands since some break off while opening the bags during inspection.

 

[Joe's Coral Reef]

I had no problems with coral and TSA. Now the Tropic Marin boxes of white powder had to be opened and tested. However I can totally see why they would test them, lol

 

[williamCreery]

I had no problems with coral and TSA. Now the Tropic Marin boxes of white powder had to be opened and tested. However I can totally see why they would test them, lol

lol I had that happen to me the first time… now I walk in there with a WWC logo cooler bag and don’t even test… I’m assuming there used to it and knowing when to test with the way bags look, coral packaged nicely) they wouldn’t even hesitate to open all the the coral bags since just a few they’ll know your not messing around or hiding anything.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following, I'm actually curious how to do this as well

 

[tuscani]

I am going! First time and cannot wait. Any tips for first timer?

 

[vetteguy53081]

I am going! First time and cannot wait. Any tips for first timer?

Look at the show map and write down who you will want to visit and what you want to buy or ask. Allow time per booth so that you get to cover all the vendors you want to visit
Look also at speaker list and see what seminars you want to attend.

Bring your own heat packs as well as large fish bags to place your purchases in to avoid leaks through styro.
Bring some cash as not all vendors take cards.
be sure to get raffle tickets IF you can be at drawing in person

 

[landlubber]

i brought corals home from macna 2017 in New Orleans to mid-western Canada, some of which were bought 2 entire days ahead of us departing. CITES limits what we can take over the border to corals without a carbonate skeleton or any live rock attached, so essentially softies and zoas but also WWC Bounce mushrooms back when they were as highly prices as they ever got. We suffered zero losses.
TSA and our eventual customs agents were the only people concerned with it and after testing the water we're essentially more interested in how cool our hobby is.
My only advice to give would be to transport in as much water as allowable.