The past few months I have been seriously contemplating importing corals from the US; although, most of the suppliers require a minimum $1000 (US) order before they will consider applying for the CITES. If we could get a group of Calgary reefers to get together to split an order, the cost wouldn't be all that bad. I have imported numerous animals in the past and the only problem is that CITES can take a long time for approval. The longest I have waited is 5 months, but on the other hand, I have also received aproval in as little as 1 week (this is shipping from US to Canada, not Canada to the US). It usually costs $25 for CITES and around $100 for a US Fish and Game officer to inspect the corals to ensure that they are all on the permit. Even if the species is not covered on CITES (for instance zooanthids) an officer still needs to inspect the package as a precaution. Even if you are bringing your pet dog on vacation with you to the US, they will still charge a fee. I believe this inspecion still costs around $100, but I have never shipped non-CITES protected species before. If there is anyone interested in splitting an order from the US, let me know and maybe we can put something together.
Nathan
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