Florida Live Rock Culturing - Incidental Harvest Issues?

[icy1155]

Ok I have a question that you guys might be able to answer. I am planning on moving to florida in the next year or so, and once we are there and all settled in I am looking into getting an aquaculture lease for LR. What I want to know is if/when I get the LR out there and stuff growing on it and return it to my house I know that anything that is incidental on the rock is fine to take with the rock. If I take rock that has SPS growing on it, and then grow those out and frag them to sell/trade, do I need any sort of permits for those corals since they are technically a restricted species for harvest?

[mpedersen]

Hey Icy, you pose a really interesting question (BTW, welcome to MOFIB!). I split this off the CITES thread as it's really more appropriate to it's own thread.

I look forward to the response(s)!

Matt

[icy1155]

Thanks for the welcome (I just got done posting my introduction thread) and the split. Its something I've pondered a bit but never really could figure out how it would work.

[BaboonScience]

Icy
This is something that we were concerned with when the whole live rock issue was addressed in the mid 90's. The conclusion at the time (I believe that it still stands) was that ANY opportunistic life form that settles on your substrate is OK. The reasoning that I and others put forth at the time was that if your substrate had not been there, the life form would not have settled on an appropriate substrate and thus would have died.
I will, however, be interested in other responses. NOAA and state agencies have had issues crop up in the past few years that could alter that philosophy.
That said, depending on where you are moving to in Florida, the chances of SPS settling on your live rock farm will vary greatly.
Good luck.

[icy1155]

We are hoping to be moving down to the keys area. If we do get the lease/aquaculture thing going I just didnt want people to get into trouble for having carribean SPS that we cultured.

[Miles]

I would contact Richard at www.tampabaysaltwater.com. Although he would be a competitor, he may open your eyes on some of difficulties of LR aquaculture and permitting/licensing.

[icy1155]

I've already done alot of research into what is required to get an aquaculture lease and how much it is yearly... the LR lease would be for personal use, not to make a profit, at least not initally.

["Umm, fish?"]

One of the DIBS challenge species is a restricted species of coral. The only way to get it is aquaculture (and that's pretty much non-existent) or through opportunistic settlers on live rock.

Here's a quote for you from one of the only dealers in these animals that we've found:

Caribbean Hard Corals !!!

AquaTouch is pleased to announce the availability of aquacultured hard corals from the Caribbean. There are no legally collected Atlantic hard corals in the aquarium trade. These corals are naturally settled larvae that are grown on aquaculture substrate and are typically 1 to 2 years old by the time they are sold. We are pleased to offer these unique species not found in the Indo-Pacific coral trade.

In time we hope to expand the variety of corals available. Please check back to this page in the future for updates and new specimens.

From here: http://www.aquatouch.com/live_stock.htm

Now, as to what you would have to do to prove to the authorities that all of the corals you sell are opportunistic settlers on artificial substrate, well....

[mpedersen]

Found this interesting post offering rare Florida corals for sale - http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.p ... pic=154888

These corals are from the Atlantic so normally they are completely illegal to collect for the hobby and they both originated from Florida waters which makes them even more illegal to collect. However, since they managed to settle in off-shore mariculture facilities they are exempt from collection laws. Most likely the larvae of these particular corals was carried by a current to the mariculture facilities where they settled on some of the live rock being farmed.

FWIW,

Matt

[Miles]

They are't that rare... I have no less than 10 colonies of the tube corals that came on my Florida Aquacultured rock, and that isnt including the 10 or so that didn't make it. It was covered with it. You just can't buy a colony of it, you have to get the rock with it attached. Tampabaysaltwater.com sells their deco rock thats covered in it. Out of the 140lbs of rock I got from them, only the base rock didnt have at least a golfball size colony of the "RARE" Atlantic coral.
Here is an old picture I have that I took the day the rock came in. For reference, the clam in the middle is the size of a baseball, and even it has a tiny colony growing on it.