[jsh3180]

Oh boy, just want I want to see in my local paper when I get up this morning. I'm a general contractor with 30 years of business here in the Florida Keys. The environmental groups in collusion with US Fish & Wildlife have already got some 90% of the Keys under their "protection" through various endangered species. We've got of course the most famous one, the Key Derr, then there's the Keys Marsh Rabbit, the Keys Silver Rice Rat, the Schauss Swantail Butterfly.....the list goes on and on, ever decreasing the area where people can build, live or even play. Now they're going after live rock under the water, the article states that elkhorn and staghorn coral are the building blocks of the reef. FALSE!!! It's the large "boulder" types such as Brain Coral that are the building blocks of the reef.

Yikes, I'd better stop now or I'll go on and on. Lord help us all.

[Louis Foxwell]

We must begin to ask questions about the purpose of species protection. If these laws are not written to ensure human consumption of resources then they are without merit. It is not the province of the government to protect nature from humans. The government was never established to govern non human activity. This is over reaching to a fault.

[antivenom]

Not that I am a coral hugger (which would hurt me and kill the coral) but do have some under water experience to share. Brain coral is far and few, and are very slow growing so to call them important building blocks is incorrect. Whereas the elkhorn and stag horn coral grow faster and have other elements about their physical attributes that actually allow for reef building to happen quicker. It is natural for pieces of the elk or stag coral to break off and regenerate, even more important they act like berms that allow sand to build around them which then collect bigger objects, shells, and smaller pieces of tumbling underwater debris that is caught in the surge which builds up a mound that will start to have algae grow and then more debris gets caught and more growth will happen to the original piece of coral that came to rest there...etc...so this is the most rapid coral and reef growth that takes place under the sea.

I am a regular diver off the coast or Roatan, I have seen reefs in some cases over the years over a hundred times...yup the same reef and same dive spots. It fascinates me to see how fast some aspects of the reef can grow...the growth I see is lettuce, elk & stag horn corals, whereas I see lot of brain coral dying slowly and not repopulating at the same rate. Brain coral is far more susceptible to damage...even a shark rolling down the reef while killing something or during mating damages coral...brain coral just can’t take the abuse that lettuce, elk & stag horn can tolerate.

The reef will best benefit from the fast growing corals not the majestic brain coral.

[sergeantdave]

The Center for Biological Diversity is a criminal enterprise that was successfully sued by a southwest rancher these eco-fascists tried to shut down. The Center for Biological Diversity has lots of bucks and everyone everywhere should sue these shysters constantly.

[Tai_Chung]

It seems like using the Endangered Species Act to combat “Global Warming” is an abuse of the Act. It could force Kyoto-like restrictions on the entire United States.

[LiteKeeper]

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