[prototypep2p]

I dont know if anybody else heard this but I heared from my wholeseller that tonga will no longer be shipping out coral to the U.S.
I am freaking out anybody else hear anything about this?

[prototypep2p]

no more tonga LR

[Ganrin]

Tonga is closed at the moment, Walt Smith posted on RC about the problem there.
Reef Central Online Community - Tonga Closes

"Technically there is no ban. However the thing that is wrong with CITES is a little more complicated that crossing a few T’s and dotting some I’s. Tonga has not filed with CITES the required documents that will allow them to export CITES items such as hard coral, live rock, soft coral with substrate attached. What is required is that they report the names and numbers of the people on the scientific committee and the management authority that sets the quota and is qualified to issue a non detriment finding which must appear on the permit.
Well to make a long story short Tonga does not have a scientific committee and it could take months before they establish one. We are looking into the possibility of the SC and the MA being the same body of people and could possibly pull it off since the MA is the Fisheries department who issue the permit in the first place. This is our only chance to avoid a many months delay and most companies there will not last through this.
The really big concern is that Fisheries was already trying to BAN live rock and cut the coral quota in half. That is why I was there in the first place to deal with this threat. I finally convinced the Economic Council to have Fisheries lay off the BAN until a proper study was done since they had none and were anxious to ban us based on hearsay from some jealous village fishermen. How fast do you think they will move when they realize that the US and CITES has already done their dirty work for them?" WALT SMITH

Its sounds from his post that there is internal politics that will make following international guidelines more difficult so it may be a while till they are open again. He said in another post that Solomon Islands fixed the problem in 2 days.

[prototypep2p]

that makes me feel better