New Regulations implemented by Canadian Government

[Matt]

Just found this in CNN.com

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OTTAWA, Canada (CNN) -- Aquarium enthusiasts and pet stores across Canada have been delivered a nasty shock.

Beginning on June 1, 2007, Canadians will no longer be able to import live fish, coral or rocks that are sourced from several countries that have threated reef ecosystems. In a departure from normal protocol, Canada has unilaterally evaluated the tropical reefs in Australia, Indonesia, India, Sumatra, Thailand, and most of the Caribbean and declared them "threatened".

Given the difficulty for Customs officers to accurately identify the source country, it effectively shuts down Canada's borders to all imports in the described categories.

"We are acting unilaterally to position Canada as a leader in fragile ecosystem preservation," said Abril Tonto, spokesperson for the Canada Revenue Agency. "We don't expect this to have a substantial impact on Canadians, as the actual volumes are very low. This is an opportunity for Canada to lead the discussion on the critically-important area of ecosystem preservation. Coral reefs all over the world are being devastated by over-harvesting and climate change."

There will be execptions made for public aquariums and researchers.

CNN
http://www.cnn.com/headlines/canregs_news.html

[bsyoun]

Ben

[justinl]

lol I don't trust ANYTHING i read today.... *shifty eyes*

[marie]

I like the name Abril Tonto

[jslaney]

Though our impact is relatively small, this is probably for the best and should be encouraged.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Haha. Good one.

[atcguy]

good try

[EmilyB]

Canada Revenue Agency...bwahahahaha..

[Matt]

Obviously, I wrote this in jest. On a more serious note, how many of us will actually be able to buy wild-collected live rock, coral or fish in 20 years? Should we be able to now? How many of us (still in the hobby) will have specimens that are extinct in the wild? I don't think this hobby is unethical, as the destruction of the reefs is apparently much more about environmental issues (heat, pollution) and commercial fisheries than it is about our minor collection for the marine aquarium trade.

What do you think? Should we be able to?

[Kabong]

I've already heard of people having extinct corals in there tank.
Is this a good thing?
Well It's better then it being extinct altogether.
Maybe one day there will be a reintroduction program and get some of these things back to the reef.