I know this topic has popped up on a few other boards and has thus been closed. In true RAG fashion, I would like to open flame free discussion on this topic.
It appears that in Feb 2004 Eric Borneman an "Aqua Guru" submitted an application to house and grow colonial lines of protected stony corals from the florida reefs.
It appears that Eric had intentions of growing them and propagating them for financial gain.
It appears that Eric housed the corals and such in his home and in Reef Savers a commerical coral business.
It appears Eric took corals that were slated for transplantation by the Navy and went out side of his collecting permit.
It appears that Eric did not care properly for the corals and instead went on many trips while he knew the corals were in jeopardy.
It appears that the US government had to DEMAND that Eric return the corals and did not give them back after several requests.
It appears that Eric may have mixed the Atlantic corals with Pacific corals thus dooming them to a life of captivity and making them unsuitable for eventual transplantation into the wild.
I believe it is time for answers. These are the property of the USA. Thus it directly affects you and our future hobby.
It is time for answers. Did these things really happen? Where is Eric to tell us what truly happened? Is this the travesty that it really seems?
This is my opinion on the events, and nothing else should be read in to it.
I'd like to see this settled myself, but unless this goes to court, I doubt we'll actually ever know for sure.
For Eric Borneman's sake, I hope this all turns out to be a big misunderstanding, but things sure don't look good.
I get the impression, but am only guessing that there was some sort of business arrangement between Eric and Reef Savers that somehow fell through, and Eric got "locked out" and had no access to the corals. Remember this is only my guess.
Is this the travesty it really seems?
In my opinion no. The area the corals were collected from was going to have some construction done on it anyway. I suspect a lot of nearby corals would have suffered some damage, far more than what was collected.
Also, the government did get the collected corals back, although the condition they were in was questionable.
If you look at the inventory of what was collected, it lists 357 frags (under 8 cm). That sounds like a lot, but you'll see more frags if you visit a some of the larger LFSs. The larger corals numbered 142, again, sounds like a lot, but you can find that many at some of the larger LFSs.
I would consider the loss of all the corals tragic, but long term it's not going to affect the reef much. It will regrow, one way or another. If necessary, new frags could be removed from other locations and transplanted there, at Eric's expense, if he's guilty.
No matter what happens, this will be a problem for Eric. Even if he's completely innocent, he will never overcome the stigma of these events.
I do have some mixed feelings about all this. I would like to see aquacultured Florida corals available to us reef keepers, on the other had I want it all done legally.
I agree with DaveK. On the comment on page 7 of the permit request it states that the corals were intended for research purposes only not for reintroduction to seed natural reefs.Not much impact there.
I know this is not on topic but I'd really rather have some sort of disclosure on where 12 billion in cash, yes that's BILLION DOLLARS IN CASH of our money dissapeared to in Iraq
If you read it again, the permit was only for corals under 20cm. The navy was under contractual agreement to transplant anything over 20cm. Then look at the inventory.
It's hard for me to have any sort of opinion on this matter. I don't know who E.B. is, so I'm probably behind the times. Being that I am a true believer in liberty and freedom, I despise the federal government in just about every single way it can be despised; if someone happens to pull one over on them, I can only applaud them and say "Atta boy!!" If this E.B guy pulled a fast one on the feds, he can drink from my canteen anyday!!
One guy supposedly taking some corals that he wasn't "authorized" to take is just not enough to get my skivvies in a bind. I'll be damned if I would lower myself to "Al Sharpton, Super Scumbag" status by considering someone guilty without hearing the other side of the story.
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SO, I guess the question that I see raised more than anything else is this; How is the Federal, State, and Local Governments look at any other harvesting permits in the future?? My answer is simply this- once again, someone has made a mistake that all of us are going to have to pay for from now on. While I totally agree that we need to regulate coral harvest(which by the way is TOTALLY necessary to preserve our natural coral reefs) as normal, our "elected" officials will overdo and all of us will suffer.
maybe it is time that all of us that are in the hobby need to start and or increase our demands that our suppliers vigerously demand propogated livestock instead of wild. It is proven that the propogated are hardier, however I was shocked at the cost I have to pay for them. 75-100% more expensive.
Well a few people do not want to post in public, so here are a few excerpts I am getting through email:
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Or is Eric Uthanizing more Regal Tangs by the use of the NYC sewage system.
YES THIS IS A QUOTE. It may be an old one, and go back beyond the memeory of this computer but it was a public post. I told him then I woudl haunt him about it. I therefore submit this comment
Quote:
Well personally, I don't see any reason to even get involved in this when the website where this information is coming from is so one sided it isn't even funny
Good evening everyone... I just got a note about this thread and thought I'd pop in.
Regarding the "one side of the story" stuff: please let me explain something about FOIA requests. You can't file a FOIA request asking for a "side of the story." When I filed my FOIA request, I asked for ANY and ALL information on this project and the Trumen Annex corals it involved. What I got is what I got. Now if anyone thinks the selection of documents is "one sided," well, they can take that up with the NOAA FOIA office.
Here is my general consensus. Both parties involved are guilty. The sanctuary for actually allowing it to happen and Mr. Borneman for what had transpired. If the sanctuary actually knew that reefsavers was a wholesale company(essentially a pet shop) do you think they would have ok'ed the permit? Eric is a very smart guy no doubt and knew what he was doing, I have no doubt about that what so-ever. As soon as those corals hit the reef savers systems they were contaminated. He was now studying Caribbean corals with indo-pacific diesiese. He knew that from the get go IMO. Do you think that Drs. Fosters and smith could apply for a permit to get these corals? Sure, would it be approved? Not a chance. The sanctuary dropped the ball and someone caught them sleeping. Later on they realized there mistake and asked for our contaminated corals back that could never ever be relocated. This is truly a slap in the face for the hobby and should not go un-noticed.
The whole thing is pretty depressing no matter what angle you look at it from. As painful as it is though, I do hope that bringing it to light will help open all our eyes a little... to a lot of different things.
Borneman? Corals? Federal Government?
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