Fiji corals import shut down!

[Achilles Tang]

Apparently, the US is stopping all shipments from Fiji until further notice. That means all corals and LR.

Got this info from RC:

ACTION: Effective immediately, the United States will prohibit the import of CITIES listed specimens from Fiji or CITES listed specimens with an origin of Fiji until further notice. The United States will also prohibit the export or re-export of CITES listed specimens to Fiji or the re-export of CITIES-listed specimens with an origin of Fiji until further notice. Any such shipments are subject to seizure and forfeiture.

Contact: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

From the CITIES website:

Renewal of recommendation to suspend trade with Fiji

It was recommended in Notification to the Parties No. 2003/008 of 7 February 2003 that Parties not accept export permits from Fiji until Fiji’s coral export quotas had been verified by the Secretariat and published on the CITES website.

During the 49th meeting of the Standing Committee (Geneva, April 2003), the Secretariat reported on Fiji’s enactment of its legislative bill to implement CITES. The Committee requested the Secretariat to verify the matters detailed in Fiji’s report and to issue a Notification to the Parties, definitively withdrawing the trade suspension, if all outstanding issues had been fully addressed.

After reviewing various matters, the Secretariat determined that Fiji’s Endangered and Protected Species Act No. 29 of 2002 is primary enabling legislation that requires the gazetting of implementing regulations in order for certain provisions to take effect. The Secretariat, together with a representative of Australia (as the representative of Oceania to the Standing Committee) met representatives of Fiji in August 2003. At that time it was agreed that the recommendation to suspend trade with Fiji would be renewed if, by 31 October 2003, Fiji had not promulgated implementing regulations for Act No. 29 and provided details of coral export quotas to the Secretariat. In spite of reminders by the Secretariat, no implementing regulations or details of coral export quotas have been provided to the Secretariat to date.

Therefore the recommendation of the Conference of the Parties that all Parties refuse any import from and export or re-export to Fiji of specimens of CITES-listed species is renewed from 31 October 2003 until further notice.

Info from Walt Smith:

From the inside …….

A few people have asked me to comment on this thread and I am happy to share what I know so far.

It is true that Fiji has been shut down for an undetermined amount of time. Fiji has been given one deadline after another to get an important piece of legislation in place and for one reason or another that has had some difficulty getting to the table. The main reason is that the official in charge is completely incompetent and felt that if he just ignored the responsibility it would just go away. In fact he does not know how to work his email and when someone else from government stepped in to try and help he found over 200 messages that were unopened from C.I.T.E.S. warning him of the impending deadlines. This is no joke ….. that’s just how silly this whole thing is! It is no wonder that C.I.T.E.S. finally gave up and imposed their final deadline which was October 31, 2003.

This is not the fault of the exporters, we did our job and supplied all of the information required to set the quota and report our exports while everything was in compliance with the exception of this one piece of paper that is supposed to come from someone who can’t even spell regulation let alone communicate about one.

Amazingly enough once this person left the country on government business another person stepped in and got the job done. However, it was not done in time enough to meet the deadline but just the day before the deadline. What happens next is that today Parliament will meet to approve the legislation (reliable word has it that they will) and it will be published in the Gazette (government paper) on Friday and once C.I.T.E.S. sees this they will lift the ban. Two things can happen here to spoil this 1) Parliament may want to delay the process by asking for more time to review it, I was told that this was unlikely 2) C.I.T.E.S. could take their sweet time to lift the ban to teach Fiji a lesson, also unlikely (I hope).

If all goes well everything should be back to normal next week. A few things in some of these post I need to clear up. No, I am not in Fiji right now as was mentioned and Fiji has never been shut down yet, not even for a week as someone has suggested that it happens every year about this time.

One piece of good news is that my cultured rock is still ok to bring in and we have a very big load coming in tomorrow and this could be a very good time to finally take a look at some very nice rock, if I don’t say so myself (plug, plug).

I hope this clears up some of your questions or prevents any silly rumors from getting out of hand like I’m in a Fiji jail eating rats for the rest of my life.

Take care all and I will pray for the future of a business I have worked so hard for and the 350+ employees that have families depending on me for their daily bread. Fiji has it hard enough right now without this hitting their economy.

Cheers,

Walt

Update ……..

Thanks for kind words and concern folks. To answer a few questions and give you the latest update I have this to offer.

Last night I was able to talk with the gentleman from T.R.A.F.F.I.C. (the regulatory branch that C.I.T.E.S. relies on for information) stationed in Fiji. He told me that the Parliament did approve the legislation and the next step was to get the paper submitted to the Solicitor General for publication into the Gazette on Friday (our Thursday) and the deadline for this is 10:00 am today. To say the least, it will be tight or it will not be Gazetted until the following Friday which means another week. However, there is one worry and that is he wasn’t very clear if his information was accurate since he got it second hand. If we are successful in getting this thing in the Gazette on Friday it will be up to C.I.T.E.S. to get it on their web site before our permits will be accepted.

Now that you have completed “Fiji Government 101” we will move on … hopefully!

Regarding other rock we still have our Tonga Kaelini rock every week and the other types of rock that come from Tonga (shelf & branch) and of course I mentioned our Fiji cultured rock is in good supply and is not affected by the ban.

As I have said many times we all need to start paying attention to what is going on with cultured stuff. I am not going to get on a soap box about destroying the reef because I still defend our activities because I know personally of our commitment to establish proper reef management and accurate monitoring programs. I know it is hard to imagine if you have never been there but the reef is a renewable resource that can be harvested in a responsible manner. The owners of the reef have a right to earn a living from one of their few valuable sources of income if properly managed and this is what we are all about. However, situations like this also allow us the time to reflect on the other alternatives. I still look forward to the day when the hobby will start to be more supportive of the aquaculture efforts that are producing very nice corals and rock but are passed by in favor of “wild caught”. In our case we have more than 70,000 pieces of coral on racks (yes 70,000) that will rival any wild caught in color, shape and size yet it is still a very insignificant part of our export. The wholesalers tell me that the stores don’t want it so they don’t stock it!!! Come on guys, talk with your stores and start creating the demand from your end. I have taken this to the next level in Fiji and have voluntarily reduced our own quota by 20% per year (in rock) in hopes that we can convince the market to start accepting aqua cultured products by then. It is these kind of situations that should remind us all how vulnerable we all are and how important this whole issue is on many levels of conservation and awareness. Please don’t accuse me of hypocritical preaching because you must realize that if it were not for our harvest (I like to say responsible harvest) in the first place none of this other stuff would be possible. Ok enough said … I hope.

Someone else asked where they could view our site. The www.waltsmith.com site is going under major updates and renovations right now but I think the old version is still up. However, www.pacificaquafarms.com has more up to date information on our cultured efforts and product. Even though I no longer own Pacific Aqua Farms (wholly) it still carries my name and our products and the site is full of good photos.

Take care all,

Walt

You can follow up on the issue here... not sure how much that will affect us.

AT

[soggy]

i suppose the cost of the average live rock will boom quite a little if that's the case. cause when more people need lr, and less lr are being brought in, chances are people are gonna be willing to pay more to get them. and seeing this as a fact, the various lfs will jack up the price if not a little just to make that quick buck or two. i know if i owned a lfs, i would. wouldn't you?

[Achilles Tang]

Frankly, not a lot of LR comes from Figi into Singapore.

There are other places like Tonga, Vanuatu, Indo, Australia, Phillipines where LR can come from.

You have to see who brings in CITIES liverock.

[soggy]

point noted. and it's really hilarious come to think of it. the fact that you earn money, but you do not know how to work your email.

[pospeh]

I am all for putting teeth behind laws.

This should give people additional assurance that sustainable harvesting quotas are being set at the country of origin, and that working and buying within the CITES quota system will not destroy the reefs we love so much.

[ai[k²]wan]

i think whatever it is as long as it does not directly affect us, does not really matter hahah..

there is always a reason for everything

[Dispar_Anthias]

Frankly, not a lot of LR comes from Figi into Singapore.

There are other places like Tonga, Vanuatu, Indo, Australia, Phillipines where LR can come from.

You have to see who brings in CITIES liverock.

But IMO fiji rocks are the best

[pacificbetta]

i think whatever it is as long as it does not directly affect us, does not really matter hahah..

This is a very unsensitive remark. If you are an employee in some of the more proper collection stations in Fiji, you will not be feeling this way. To think that you were laughing.

Well I hope this episode shows us a well taught lesson on clamouring for cut-throat competition in this industry. One day it WILL affect us.

[marinebetta]

The import ban is only by the US (from RC posting). As far as I know (and the source is reliable), we have not yet taken up CITES secretariat's recommendations yet. Perhaps their legislation will come through even before we decide to impose the ban as well......This kind of thing is common and it helps give some "teeth" to CITES - we were in the same position not too long ago!

My freshwater cousin is absolutely right in his position - all things are connected in this world and we can definately be affected if we are not concerned about the global situation.

[Achilles Tang]

Freshwater cousin? oh... I get it!!

[pacificbetta]

My dear saltwater cousin

As far as I know (and the source is reliable), we have not yet taken up CITES secretariat's recommendations yet.

Your information is a little outdated already......

[Achilles Tang]

Ah so... Fiji corals are not allowed to be imported into SG also until the ban is lifted?

[marinebetta]

My dear saltwater cousin

Your information is a little outdated already......

Alamak...that was just this morning! Maybe I should have just kept quiet

[ai[k²]wan]

This is a very unsensitive remark. If you are an employee in some of the more proper collection stations in Fiji, you will not be feeling this way. To think that you were laughing.

Well I hope this episode shows us a well taught lesson on clamouring for cut-throat competition in this industry. One day it WILL affect us.

bad remark by me

[Terryz_]

why ban now... At the time i setting up dream tank... arghz....

[ai[k²]wan]

terry dont worry , u have other choices of rocks

[Terryz_]

but fiji nicer... anyway.. will the ban be lifted...

[ai[k²]wan]

reading the first post i tot is ban from US? not singapore?

[Terryz_]

Ah so... Fiji corals are not allowed to be imported into SG also until the ban is lifted?

here.....

[ai[k²]wan]

haha have not been following.. this is too chim for me liao .. i go back to general marine fish keeping

[Dispar_Anthias]

but fiji nicer... anyway.. will the ban be lifted...

Yes fijis are the best

[planetg]

fiji rocks are good cos they are really dense and heavy. shd provide a good number of 'live' stuff!

[AlfaRomeo]

A bit confused now, are Fiji corals and LRs banned in singapore too until the CITES hoohaa is sorted out? Can someone clarify pls?

[SpiderOne]

fiji rocks are good cos they are really dense and heavy. shd provide a good number of 'live' stuff!

dense and heavy good?? i prefer super porous and extremely light . U pay by the kg man.

[FuEl]

Why not they just aquaculture liverock in fiji? Definitely better than just plucking them from the reefs and upsetting the ecosystem.