I just had a very interesting thought....

[madmax7774]

I've heard of some folks talking about reef conservation, and things of that nature. I wonder if we as hobbyists could take a frag and grow it into a sizeable coral, and then transplant it into an ocean reef, like off the coast of florida, or something like that... would it survive? Heck if placed in the right location, It might even grow huge. Wouldn't that be a hoot, if we could start returning corals to the reefs?

On another note,

Could we create an artificial reef, and then place corals in it, and allow them to propegate, and then harvest pieces of them for the hobby? Would that be legal? Since we created the reef, and put the corals their, we ought to be able to harvest from it right?

I think I would like to coin the term "Artifical reef insemination"...

[Gatortailale]

Good thought. My understanding is this is the Current policy / stance by NOAA & others: that there is a big risk of introducing disease or other harmful things that may be present in closed system that could harm wild stock.

 

Other note - they have taken small grown frags and insert the plugs either on old reefs or on the artificial reef ball reefs.

 

http://www.reefball.org/

 

sample of reefball plugs w/ frags in this article: http://www.reefball.com/map/antiguascience...ressrelease.htm

 

 

but note: frags grown out in ocean, not in closed system.

[Rascal]

I can't figure out how to copy images from another web site, but if you follow these links you can read some good info on the biorock projects. Second link has photos.

 

http://www.globalcoral.org/Report%20of%20t...%20Workshop.htm

 

http://www.globalcoral.org/Third%20Pemuter...%20Workshop.htm

 

Personally, I find NOAA's current policy/stance unfortunate. It seems that given the current state of knowledge in hobby, introduction of parasites and disease could be easily controlled. Then again, what do I know?

[Gatortailale]

 

 

Personally, I find NOAA's current policy/stance unfortunate. It seems that given the current state of knowledge in hobby, introduction of parasites and disease could be easily controlled. Then again, what do I know?

 

 

Like I said, it's my understanding - I may be wrong. BUT take red-bugs for example - (have not read up on them in past year) but all that I read in past on them was that they are not found on wild corals (again, my understanding of what I have read - may be wrong). Others like acro eating flatworm, monti. eating nudi. ... you name it of things that harm corals in our tanks - who knows what would happen if our corals from closed system tanks were put on wild reefs.

 

There are some NOAA researchers & many other orgs. that are growing frags in ocean and/or bay areas for plug placement projects.

 

Nobody knows what future holds - may be some day in 100+ years that only corals on planet are in tanks and then debate can be of putting frags from tanks in ocean.

[smarsh97]

just a little curious, how did the red bugs and nudi's and such end up in our tanks if not from the wild caught colonies?

 

Those critters had to have come from somewhere to begin with.

 

Sandy

[OUsnakebyte]

Well, this might work one day, however... the timing would have to be better than it is now. There is no use restocking a wild reef when the environmental conditions are not favorable - too much coastal development/runoff/diseases like white band, black band, etc./increasing temperatures, etc., etc.

 

There is currently a movement to create a genetic bank of the now threatened A. palmata and A. cervicornis corals of the Caribbean. http://www.secore.org/ We are trying to do this in two ways: 1) keep the live corals in public aquaria for later seeding one day and 2) cryogenically freezing the gametes and larvae for a different type of backup.

 

Of course, we would not want to stock the Caribbean/tropical western Atlantic with organisms fron the Indo-Pacific and vice versa = invasive species. There are issues of having a mixed reef at home - organisms from the Caribbean/tropical western Atlantic and Indo-Pacific in the same tank - and there being some type of contamination if those corals, that had been in contact with their Indo-Pacific cousins, were then translocated back to the wild. (other than the obvious - introducing a "pest" endemic to the Indo-Pacific and placing it in the Caribbean...) I don't know, but maybe it is a consideration of NOAA's?

 

Cheers

Mike

Edited February 20, 2007 by OUsnakebyte