A unique opportunity to help a reef. Possibly a once in a lifetime opportunity

Discussion in 'Environmental' started by Monacle, Aug 20, 2006.

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  1. inwall75

    inwall75 Giant Squid

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    I apologize for partially hijacking this thread. If anyone has anymore questions beyond this answer, please PM me.

    Jeff,

    We aren't even dealing with the knee yet but thank you for the info once I get to that point. We're hoping the nerves to my left leg do something called, "Recruitment" or reconnect in my spine. 2/3'rds of the nerves to my left leg got snapped in my spine. As a result, 2/3'rds of the muscles in my left leg stopped firing and made it so weak that you cannot imagine. (BTW...this is highly inaccurate but it makes it more understandable). So far, so good. My leg isn't atrophying.

    Annick,

    I used to race BMX bikes when I was a teenager. I was also a daredevil in every other way beyond BMX when I was a kid. I'm not unaccustomed to broken bones. However, you are correct. Things change. I even told my orthopedist that I've never had to have a cast on so long, that I've broken bones many times before when I was a kid, etc. His answer was pretty funny....he said, "You're not a kid anymore". :)

    Jason,

    I don't know how to explain this but it's quite easy for me to look at the bright side of things. I didn't explain this in my original post. Jason wasn't supposed to be there until Monday but he stopped by on Friday to see if he could work then. When you can't move, are going into shock as well as hypothermia for about 4 hours, all you can do is think and pray. I pretty much get along with everyone with exception of one family member. When you think you're "Dead Meat", you start thinking about, "What you would you have done differently?"

    The relationship with that family member is restored now and, "Guess what....It wasn't all of his fault". And, "Guess what....he no longer thinks it's all of my fault either". In short, you really don't know what might happen today. Tell your loved ones that you love them. Forgive them for minor offences and have an honest discussion for major offences.

    I'm not telling anyone what to do. However, my 'ramblings' are from someone who thought he was going to die within minutes for about 4 hours. Trust me...your priorities will change.
     
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  3. Gresham

    Gresham Great Blue Whale

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    http://www.cites.org/common/quotas/2006/ExportQuotas2006.pdf

    As of the release of this years quotas, Micronesia is not on the list. This means you couldn't ship to any CITE member nation, ie. the US, EU, and Canada, among a bunch of others.

    There are some non member nations that ship coral, but their fisheries are helped out by Australia, so most nations will accept the docs as kosher.
     
  4. Monacle

    Monacle Skunk Shrimp

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    It is my understanding, that Micronesia is a treaty country with the United States, being that it used to be a "commonwealth" of the U.S. sort of like Puerto Rico is now. When it formed it's own nation, I am told, they signed many treaties with the U.S. and even modeled their government after ours. It has been told to me that the Micronesian government wants this project to happen, and is concerned because of what is happening to reefs all over the globe.

    The Micronesian reefs used to have a huge problem with fishermen using ordiancce from sunken ships to fish with. The fishermen would dive down and find unexploded shells, bring them to land, empty the powder, dry it out and then explode it over the reef to harvest fish. The Micornesian government, along with the gentleman I am dealing with, went through huge measures to stop this from happening anymore. From what I understand, they installed sensors in the reefs that could pick up the waves from an explosion and they would be able to triangulate a position and then catch the culprit.

    The man I am working with from there: Was the president of the Chamber of Commerce of Chuuk for 10 years. He is the Honorary Consulat (spelling?) Warden for the U.S. Embassy. He has shipped aquacultured sponges from Micronesia to the United States.

    Thank you for your information on CITES. Thank you for your replies. Thanks again to those who are helping. Thank you to Matt. I will get in touch with my contact today/tomorrow, and have him explain again how we are getting around the CITES issue. I know the answer is somewhere here in the hundreds of papers, maps, surveys, and everything else I have.

    GLTA
     
  5. Gresham

    Gresham Great Blue Whale

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    You still didn't address the biggest concern of all, air freight ;) Trust me, I've been doing this for ages and have helped several collection stations get off the ground, and seen even more not. Tonga has a constant battle for freight space, as does the Marshalls, Vanautu, etc. The direct flight, flight time, is a huge consideration as well.

    FWIW, Puerto Rico can not send any corals to the US. Most US "common wealths" can not either, like Guam. I know of a group in Guam that has gotten around that, but they can not get any good flights for their stock.
     
  6. Monacle

    Monacle Skunk Shrimp

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    Quote Gresham "FWIW, Puerto Rico can not send any corals........"

    I'm sorry, but what is "FWIW"?

    Thanks again to all who are playing the role of devil's advocate to perfection, but we are aware of the air freight problems associated with our project and we are working on the solution to that problem as I type.

    Also I would just like to stress the point again that we are not trying to merely become a collection station. We are trying to set up an AQUACULTURE program. Thanks again for the posts.

    GLTA
     
  7. serotonin

    serotonin Purple Spiny Lobster

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  9. Gresham

    Gresham Great Blue Whale

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    Aquaculture, or mariculture? In situ (in the ocean) or land based?

    I helped in the initial phases of a farm in NW Bali and Tonga. The group in Gaum is a farm, but i had no input on that. That's a NGo driven farm, very similiar to what your doing. That gentlemen is Mike King of CORL.

    It's a real cut and dry deal, either you can get a decent flight to your countrys of import, or yah can't. I hope that latter is what ends up for you though, sounds like a very promising venture. Any assistance I can offer, ie. contacts, etc. feel free to email me (PM for my email).
     
  10. Monacle

    Monacle Skunk Shrimp

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    Thank you very much Gresham. Here's what we're thinking: Sometimes there are freight planes that come in from different mainland countries, bringing in fresh fruits and dry goods, from a country such as Guam, but a lot of times the plane goes back empty, because Micronesia doesn't have any exports. (Something the Government desperately wants to start to have) While we're working on our solution to the air freight issue, we are thinking that we will ship dead coral, (They have a huge abundance of that there) dead live rock (which I can re-cure and purple up stateside), and sand, by slow boat in 20 ton containers. CYCY which means from Container yard to container yard; which would be the site where we are dredging the sand or whatever to the site on my acreage, we figured the total cost per pound after shipping, cusoms, labor, and travel (because I would have to fly there and back) would be in the 30 cent per pound range. We were thinking that we would be able to make some money at this price.
    Now, we are aware that the CY at the micronesian side only has a crane that is rated for like 24 tons, so we are thinking we will use the smaller 22 ton containers and fill them instead of going with the big 36 ton containers and only partially filling them. I have a buddy in the shipping business (Shout out to ROADWAY) and he is helping me with some of the shipping details.

    As far as the Aquaculture goes, we are thinking that we want to build wharehouses on the land and pump the seawater into them. Collect the mother colonies from the wild and frag them, and return them to their original location. On the fragging discs, we put a seal (or tag) and grow them out. The seal will show after grow out that the frag was grown in captivity because it will be encrusted over with the coral growth. A couple of the people I am working with would like to try the mariculture side of things. I am for this, but my true interest lies in aquaculture. (I was thinking here that aquaculuture was the land based type)

    THanks
     
  11. Gresham

    Gresham Great Blue Whale

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    Most land based farms in the islands produce browner looking corals. This is in part do to low amounts of food, predation due to lack of natural pest preditors, lack of flow, elevated temps and over all, more light. Shade clothe works, but do include wrasses and such, as well as feeding the corals. I'd invest in either a nice plankton trawl, or better yet, start a IRC system to massively produce rotifers for the coral system. I can be of help on all that, it's my line of work now :D

    The CYCY sounds great for that process, Walt Smith does that, and sells it dry. I'd go for both markets if i were you. You'd be amazed at how many people would want dry rock they cure themselves. No parasites at all :D

    If you need any freight help besides your friend, the CEO of my company is a licensed freight forwarder. We ship to 70 countries now, so we're extremelly up on freight deals :D
     
  12. inwall75

    inwall75 Giant Squid

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    Gresham,

    What's an IRC system?