Illegal SPS & LPS Coral Imports into the United States for Reef Tanks

Did you know that about 30% of all the imported Torch Corals (Euphyllia Glabrescens) are seized as illegal imports? That was the case for the illegal coral trade from 2003 to 2012 at least, and the problem hasn't gone away so I'm sure it's still the case today.
As coral reefs decline around the world wild Acropora, Euphyllia, Favities - really all the SPS, LPS, and even soft corals corals (particularly Mushroom corals) - are threatened with extinction. There will always be imports for reef tanks into the United States, and imports into every other country with a reef hobby, but as hobbyists we can do better to try to limit this and make sure our corals come to us legally. If we don't, we invite regulation that will likely be unkind to our hobby - not distinguishing between a wild collected coral and a frag in a blanket ban, for example.
You can make this better though - it's not all doom and gloom. You've got these corals growing in your reef tank today - as they grow consider selling frags online. Most local fish stores will take frags of coral for store credit as well - reach out and see. This sort of stuff is what can make an influence on this problem! As hobbyists, we can be the solution. If we provide captive raised corals for the stores to sell, they don't need to import corals at all.
Wild corals tend to do worse than captive grown coral in our reef tanks. It's hard for coral to adjust from the sun to aquarium conditions - they can, for sure, but buying a coral that's been growing in a tank all it's life is much less of a shock on it.
Trends and patterns of imports of legal and illegal live corals into the United States
Author links open overlay panel
Gohar A. Petrossian, Monique C. Sosnowski, Judith S. Weis
doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.20...
I had some technical issues with this video, sorry for the slight blurriness in places!
Don't forget to like and subscribe if you enjoyed this video!
I upload at least one video each week, so check out my channel for more!
kzbin.info?sub...

[@sgbbco3981]

Thanks for quality content. The major additions of new Euphyllia morphs comping in the last few years coincides with the uptick of illegal coral imports. I wonder if that all correlates? Buy captive whenever possible.

[@ramenh2049]

Hello!! This is slightly unrelated but fish and coral are a special interest (I have ASD) for me and I haven’t been able to find a lot of good educational content about something I’m incredibly interested in and this is wonderful! Thank you for doing what you do it’s very appreciated!!!

[@goharikjan]

Great job summarizing our paper!

[@ReefMan]

It was a really eye opening paper! Thank you for writing it!

[@rc2300s2r]

Here’s something I never heard about in the hobby. I mean I’ve heard little snip bits regarding importing and illegal importing but this was very helpful for me to further understand the situation. Thank you!

[@aicaps]

Wow great video so eye opening

[@jongordon3507]

I appreciate your videos and the time you put into them. Not sure why, but KZbin hasn't shown me when you posted new ones recently, so I just now hit the subscription bell.

[@ReefMan]

Glad you enjoy! I sort of messed up the frame rate on this one a bit, but the process is fun.

[@Keepingitreal123]

I’ve dealt with improper euphyllia seizure and in the end I won cause cause the agents were uneducated completely

[@BahamaLlamaCoral]

I wonder what the process of re-acclimation is after seizure. The fact that the "products" are live animals has to change things a bit.

[@ReefMan]

That's a really good question - and I'm not sure! Certainly the import facilities are not equipped for long term maintenance of these species. Maybe they go to public aquariums? I bet a lot ends up dead though..

[@annoorkhan4219]

Where I have apply for import coral?

[@aarondus]

Fantastic video. By any chance did the paper go into what happened to the corals that were seized? I certainly hope they were not terminated.

[@ReefMan]

No, but I would be interested to know too. From what I could tell they try to get them to somewhere they can be taken care of, but I bet lots of them don’t make it.. as we know coral doesn’t really handle shipping all that well.

[@aarondus]

ReefMan I hope so. 🤞🏻

[@goharikjan]

Hi Aaron. This is the author of the paper. Unfortunately, USFWS does not give any information about what happens to the thousands (hundreds of thousands) of species seized at the U.S. border.