No Coral from Fiji?

[Yves Nobleza]

hmmm...this could suck. http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=264309&perpage=25&pagen umber=1

[PeeJ]

what is coral anyway?

[Henry]

Yeah I just finished reading that. Man your quick Josh.

[Henry]

Oh, gotta try that sometime!

[adaminaustin]

300 boxes sitting in customs.
That makes me sick! :x

I hope they enjoy the smell :-D

[GaryP]

Yea, then Customs will try to auction it off in about 6 weeks. Ain't bueacracy great?

Gary

[Instar]

They're bureacrats. They don't care about the life in those boxes. Its not about conservation of resources or the preservation of life, that's why its going to take a private group a long time to end the import practices that are killing all the clowns. If it was about life, those things would all be in holding tanks under lock and key. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to accomplish that in temporary holding tanks.

[captexas]

The wonderful world of government at its best. True it doesn't take a rocket scientist, but it does take a lot of money to set up tanks, lighting, filtration systems and have water mixed and ready at any given moment, just in case something strange happens in the future. Also, by opening boxes and putting them in holding thanks, that would make the government liable. By not doing so it makes it someones elses responsibility. Reality is that most governments don't care unless someone is shipping endangered species or animals/animal parts that are illegal to import or export.

Anyways, the saltwater fish and coral industry is very important to their economy so hopefully they will get things sorted out quickly.

[GaryP]

From what I have heard one of the biggest problems with shipping of livestock has been the security implications that have resulted from 9/11. Instead of an importer or wholesaler just taking a shipment down to an airline's freight department, it has to go through a shipping agent. Of course this has the effect of slowing things down as a result of additional handling and holding time as well as jacking up the cost because the agent gets his cut. Does anyone know anything about this? I'm not real sure of these facts, but I seem to have read it somewhere. I seem to recall reading about this in Anthony Calfo's book, but as I recall it was primarily in relation to direct shipments from Pacific exporters versus indirect shipments through California or Hawaian wholesalers. The idea being that going through a wholesaler allows livestock time to recover before being transhipped. In other words, two shorter shipments versus one longer shipment.

OK, I guess that one was just a little off topic.

Gary