Bahamas

GermanShepherdGirl · Post by **GermanShepherdGirl** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 11:29 am

Thanks for checking into this! I emailed my travel agent and asked if she knew how to find out....we'll see what she says!

Brian · Post by **Brian** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 11:54 am

I really have nothign better to do at work. If I can not get answers today I will continue trying tommorow. We are going to get something out of these people.

Fishfood · Post by **Fishfood** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 12:12 pm

Brian wrote:I called them and they stated I needed to speak to a guy named Juan Carlos or something like that and they transferred me but I just got a voicemail. I will continue trying. My boss is laughing at me because I am asking all these questions to these people and they do not understand what I am asking and just keep transferring me.

From what I know you won't get many people within the service who know much about collection of marine fish. Like I said before we primarily deal with stuff on dry land, or in the air and freshwater species. I know there are some agents who watch what is shipped in out in LA but as far as reef ecosystems it will be a different story for most offices.

lwready · Post by **lwready** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 12:51 pm

Somewhere south of Bimini is a dive site, out in the middle of nowhere, nothing but sand as far as you can see, but in the middle is a mound of the most amazing coral I have ever seen. About 100' across and about 20' high from the ocean floor.

We dove it on a Blackbeard's cruise and they were very secretive about the location. Story was that they had noticed a blip on their bottom machine and found the site by accident.

If y'all go to the Bahama's you might ask. Surely the other dive operators know about it by now. Blackbeard's called it "Roller Coaster".

I've been on dive trips in most of the Caribbean and never seen anything like this. Everything was alive, not the predominantly brown stuff with a little life on the edges.

GermanShepherdGirl · Post by **GermanShepherdGirl** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 1:05 pm

That's awesome! One of the guys that will be going with me went scuba diving this past year (not exactly sure where) but he saw a brain coral that was about 4 feet tall.

He got a pic of it but you can't tell in the pic how big it actually is.

Scott · Post by **Scott** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 6:20 pm

Florida will not allow you to collect any liverock larger than a quarter when harvesting corals. I imagine that they are strict about it because of the troubles with Acropora palmata. A cervicornis and other reef building stony corals. The liverock is made from the skeletons of these corals and they are in bad shape so all the liverock that they have is very valuable so that the other stony corals have a place to attach and grow. If the Bahamian government is interested in conserving their reefs they won't allow any rock to be taken, just like the ban on stony coral collection from the Altantic. If you take a peice that happens to have a polyp of A. palmata on it that is growing and doing well and would continue to do so and all the other sucumbs to the white band disease or any of the other diseases that are prevalent on the Atlantic reefs you could do more harm than you realize.

If you want some new life in your tank find someplace that sells Tampa Bay Saltwater or Gulfview liverock. They will have lots of life that you cannot get from Pacific rock. The problem is that most of it will not survive shipping or an extended stay in your tank. It could be lighting or the lack of phytoplankton or zooplankton. Some of the corals may live though. Liz had some and got a species of Madracis and I have seen a few posts on other forums of rose corals, Siderastrea's, brains and others. Pretty much thought the fauna and bacteria will be the same. You are more likely to get stuff like Atlantic blennies, octopi or mantis shrimp.

I would like to have a Caribbean biotope tank one day but I would have to be able to spend some time in the keys and collect what I wanted and buy some TBS rock. Maybe one day (after I retire in 50 years).

GermanShepherdGirl · Post by **GermanShepherdGirl** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 3:56 pm

I found this on a Grand Bahama web site. See the quote in blue. It doesn't specifically mention rocks but does this mean I can acutally bring stuff back to the US?

Diving and Fishing

Lobster season is open 8/1-3/31
Each person is allowed to bring back 20lbs of scale fish, six lobsters and 10 conchs.
Wahoo/Dolphin/Kingfish: six fish per person any combination.
Stone Crabs: Closed season is June 1 to October 15.
Turtle: Illegal to import: although legal to eat in The Bahamas.

mykpoz · Post by **mykpoz** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 4:20 pm

I would say no.

this is probably also meaning dead and prepaired species, and I would go out on a limb that if you tried to bring live items they would stop you.

If you want something from the water, get something from the companies that aquaculter them. That way you know you aren't taking away from reefs

oddball · Post by **oddball** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 7:51 pm

http://www.customs.gov.bm/TARIFF15022002.pdf

The customs manual for Bermuda look at page 2 as numbered on the bottom of the page.