AR-News: International: Online coral identiication (important to
detect illegal coral sales)
Barry Kent MacKay
mimus at sympatico.ca
Wed Jul 23 14:39:42 EDT 2003
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Defra) - which is the CITES
Management Authority - announced on 14 July that a coral identification
guide has now been added to the
<http://www.arkive.org/coral/Coral/coral.html> ARKive digital library.
This guide provides a wealth of information about coral species. The main
aims of the guide are to:
1) Inform the public about the increasingly threatened status of coral
2) Help the public to identify the corals that are controlled under CITES
(especially tourists who might be tempted to bring back coral souvenirs);
3) Help Customs officers in the United Kingdom, and CITES officers around
the world, to identify corals.
Many coral species around the world are highly prized for their stunning
colours and shapes and many are used in jewellery or as wildlife souvenirs.
Live corals and coral products are also widely used in the marine aquarium
trade. Around 2,000 species of coral are listed in Appendix II of CITES, and
international trade in these species is regulated.
The <http://www.arkive.org/> ARKive database was launched in Bristol on 20
May 2003. Film, photographs and audio recordings of endangered species are
being amassed and preserved in a digital safe-haven which will be available
to all via the Internet. The coral ID guide has just been added to the
existing ARKive chapters containing images of British and globally
Barry Kent MacKay
Animal Protection Institute
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
More information about the AR-News