[charlesr1958]

I'm still at a loss as to perspective here and this is how I see it. In order of revelance.

- [Personal attack moderated out]

- While all of the documents posted may be "real", they do not tell the entire story, even though in my opinion, this is still a non-story.

- I consider it a non-story simply because those corals taken were destined for destruction regardless. With vast numbers of such frags killed in the dredging operations, once the largest pieces were relocated, they should have just allowed everyone and anyone to gather the multitudes of doomed fragments for their own use, regardless of what that use is. I mean, they are dead now anyways (those left behind). Those fragments that were collected and saved from destruction by Eric, while maybe not able to be relocated (they were never intended to be from the start anyways) they may yet prove to be of use to someone. At least they are not dead as they would have been if left to the dredgers.

- Perspective - Once again, I just can not get past the touting of being concerned for a bunch of corals that in reality, were doomed regardless of who did the "dooming". I would give Eric credit for at least trying to do something constructive with them. If that did not work out as planned, so what. They were toast anyways. Did Eric take larger pieces than expected, again, that depends on assumptions, which since we are not privy to possible verbal agreements, it is left to the realm of assumption. I for one, by not knowing ALL of the facts am willing to give the benefit of any doubts. Again, such "benefits" are a matter of ones perspective on Eric. If you do not like him, you will not be quick to offer that benefit and are much more likely to condemn.

I've heard over and over this great concern for AMERICA's reefs, when in fact, the truman annex is not a reef. It is a man made canal that had "fouling" life forms found growing in it. Yeah, its nice that an attempt was made to relocate some of them, but thats about it. A non-issue.

And then there is that ever present hypocrisy. Save a few "fouling" corals in a man made structure because they are American corals, but never mind the destruction wrought on indo-pacific NATURAL reefs for our hobby. Wheres the outrage and call for action there? Ahh, but wait, if all coral collection for export was illegal, then there would not be a hobby in the states or europe. So lets save some American fragments out of a man made structure and beat the crap out of Eric, while we shop for and buy Indo-pacific corals that were ripped out of a naturaly occuring reef. hmmm, something wrong with that picture.