African Zoas

[minibowmatt]

I have become interested to find out the collection laws around Africa. I posted a thread in the RC Aquaculture forum. Interesting stuff. It seems like there is not much collection going on over there. We need to be aware that buying a zoa sold as "African" may be illegally collected.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=9529785#post9529785

 

[TyreeUM]

i dont think anyone would be takign risks selling illegal coral online with such a low value piece...plus zoanthids arent actually a coral-so any coral restrictions would not apply.

 

[minibowmatt]

what do you mean they arent a coral?
I disagree, that people wouldnt chance it. Zoas arent a low value coral anymore...

 

[TyreeUM]

yeah they arent actually a true coral-hard or soft and in most places are unregulated-hence why you can go down and collect palys in the keys as long as you have a fishing permit.

 

[TyreeUM]

east africa allows collection in a lot of areas-so dry shipping zoas from there would be prety easy and not to expensive...but who knows

 

[minibowmatt]

when those blues were posted OT, i got a PM telling me they were from the indian ocean.... Africa?

 

[d.grcich]

yeah they arent actually a true coral-hard or soft and in most places are unregulated-hence why you can go down and collect palys in the keys as long as you have a fishing permit.

What about the rock they are on? Leaving for the Caribbean in three weeks and if it is legal than I am bringing a chisel

 

[TyreeUM]

1 inch by 1 inch-dont get caught with any stonies or you will have to give me a call so I can bail you out of jail :0) you can take rics and shrooms too-make sure you get a fishing license though and check bag limits-I think its like around 10 ricordeas per day i think...i cant remember its been a little while-and this is for florida, so if you are going somewhere else you will have to check

 

[TyreeUM]

yeah there is a bag limit-I cant remember exactly what it is-like 10 a day or somthing. Good luck finding anything but grey and green though!

 

[leshnign]

Here's the Fla. fishery regs.

Ornamental Tropical Fish and Plants
Minimum size limit (Total Length) Spanish Hogfish 2"; Spotfin Hogfish 3"; Porkfish 1.5"
Maximum size limit (Total length) Angelfish (except Rock Beauty) 8"; Butterflyfish, Jawfish 4";Rock beauty 5"; Gobies 2" Spanish Hogfish 8"; Spotfin Hogfish 8".
Bag limit Fishes/Invertebrates: 20 per person per day. No more than 5 Angelfish and no more than 6 Octocoral colonies. Plants: 1 gallon per person per day.
Live landing and live well requirements. Harvest in Biscayne National Park & John Pennekamp State Park prohibited.


PROHIBITED SPECIES
It is unlawful to harvest, possess, land, purchase, sell, or exchange the following species:
Nassau Grouper, Goliath Grouper (Jewfish), Sawfish, Atlantic Angel Shark, Bigeye Sixgill Shark, Bigeye Thresher Shark, Bignose Shark, Caribbean Reef Shark, Dusky Galapagos Shark, Longfin Mako Shark, Narrowtooth Shark, Night Shark, Sevengill Shark, Sixgill Shark, Smalltail Shark, Basking Shark, Whale Sharks, Spotted Eagle Ray, Sturgeon, White Shark, Sand Tiger Shark, Bigeye Sand Tiger Shark, Manta Ray, Spiny Dogfish, Longspine Urchin, Stony, Hard, and Fire Corals, Sea Fans, Florida Queen Conch, and Bahama Starfish. Harvest of live rock in state waters if prohibited.

 

[ecotoxlady]

leshnign, that is very useful information but I was wondering if you could tell me the difference between an octocoral and a sea fan. I thought gorgonians were a type of sea fan but it seems they are also classified as octocoral. It is curious because prohibited species include sea fans but yet octocorals are allowed for collection. Anyway, just curious because I see several florida stores selling gorgonia and wanted to know if they were legal.

 

[leshnign]

Ecotoxlady.. I don't know the difference between octocorals and seafans. I was also under the impression that gorgonians were a type of seafan. I wonder if octocorals are the classification, and seafans are one of that classification that is prohibited for local collection. I'm definitly not an expert on the subject...just taking a stab at it.

 

[d.grcich]

I did a little digging and also one very important detail about collecting ricordia, or any corals from FL. You cannot take ANY live rock with the coral or you will be in deep doodoo if you get caught. That means you can't chisel them off and have any rock left on them when they come out of the water, not even pepple sized pieces I guess....

That is going to make my dream of comming across a basketball sized patch of PPE's while I am on vacation in Jamaica and fragging them that much more difficult.

 

[Chelsey]

Prohibited species: [...] whale sharks who is going to have a big enough net to collect one of those?

Good info, I am going to save those regulations to my computer so that I can bring them up when I go to FL in the future

 

[Azurel]

At one point don't know if it is still true now but with ricordea you could have a 1/4''x1/4'' piece of rock still attached to the mushroom. But that might have changed....Palys you can just peel off if you are very careful.

 

[TyreeUM]

last I knew you could have a one inch by one inch piece of rock-maybe that was just for research purposes though and I am prety sure that no true coral can be collected in the keys...you wont be able to collect in Jamaica though I am prety sure.

 

[fishes2889]

Maximum size limit (Total length) Angelfish (except Rock Beauty 8in")

Well that isnt being monitered that well. We had at least 6 to 7, 10inches+ Queen angels in my stores a couple of weeks ago.....

 

[revhtree]

Oh Bryan where are you??????