cschweitzer
06/02/2006, 03:05 PM
MODS: PLEASE READ BEFORE YOU MOVE!!!
I thought long and hard about the moral implications before writing this post and I hope you consider this before looking at it in any negative light. I came to the same conclusion I always do: worry about the coral's health before anything else. I know this is not the place for this post, but I think this is important enough to put here and I think it will receive the most activity on this forum as all the browsers pass it by. Mods, if you still think it needs to be moved or removed after you read it, by all means please do so. This is no way intended to lie, cheat, or steal. This is for the good of the coral and the good of all the people interested in it.
Shipping corals is not always easy and not for the faint of heart. There are many things that can go wrong...bag burst, damaged package, delayed or lost shipment. As reef caretakers, we have it worse than anyone. We take great care in packaging our corals and we put our trust in the shipper. Many times they take this trust for granted and do not show the same care we have spent months and years on, just to have it ripped away over the course of 24 hours.
This is only compounded and doubling our problems because they do not guarantee live arrival of animals, plants, etc. Everything else, including perishable foods to antique, fragile glass is covered, but not the one thing we care most about.
There is a trick you can use and still be completely honest with the shippers to get any DOA's caused by damged packaging or delay in service covered. This trick is: call your corals perishable foods. You are not lying, because coral is a food item for many things(certain nudibranchs, certain flatworms, redbugs, parrotfish, butterflyfish, the list goes on and on). Noone will deny that coral is perishable. Therefore, it falls directly under perishable foods. If you get a shipment of Omaha steaks and you don't plan on eating them, but instead culturing the bacteria that is on them, it would still be covered under perishable foods if they dried up and everything you wanted died off on them. I guess what I'm saying is that perishable foods do not need to be consumed or necessarily dead to be considered under that blanket.
If it is the shipping company's fault(i.e. delay, damage) that your coral dies, why do you have to take the blame. Many companies deliver perishable foods overnight and will be compensated for any loss due to shipment complications, why shouldn't we. It does not take much to keep coral alive during shipment, just don't throw my package, drop my package, destroy my package, or send it to the wrong place.
I have attempted to be very selective in my wording as to not imply anything dishonest or untruthful. If they don't ask if it is live goods, why tell them. Call it perishable foods and if they ask if it was living, tell them the truth. DO NOT LIE, it is bad for your soul. Do not offer unnecessary information either.
Trying to save the world, one reef at a time!!!!!!!
I thought long and hard about the moral implications before writing this post and I hope you consider this before looking at it in any negative light. I came to the same conclusion I always do: worry about the coral's health before anything else. I know this is not the place for this post, but I think this is important enough to put here and I think it will receive the most activity on this forum as all the browsers pass it by. Mods, if you still think it needs to be moved or removed after you read it, by all means please do so. This is no way intended to lie, cheat, or steal. This is for the good of the coral and the good of all the people interested in it.
Shipping corals is not always easy and not for the faint of heart. There are many things that can go wrong...bag burst, damaged package, delayed or lost shipment. As reef caretakers, we have it worse than anyone. We take great care in packaging our corals and we put our trust in the shipper. Many times they take this trust for granted and do not show the same care we have spent months and years on, just to have it ripped away over the course of 24 hours.
This is only compounded and doubling our problems because they do not guarantee live arrival of animals, plants, etc. Everything else, including perishable foods to antique, fragile glass is covered, but not the one thing we care most about.
There is a trick you can use and still be completely honest with the shippers to get any DOA's caused by damged packaging or delay in service covered. This trick is: call your corals perishable foods. You are not lying, because coral is a food item for many things(certain nudibranchs, certain flatworms, redbugs, parrotfish, butterflyfish, the list goes on and on). Noone will deny that coral is perishable. Therefore, it falls directly under perishable foods. If you get a shipment of Omaha steaks and you don't plan on eating them, but instead culturing the bacteria that is on them, it would still be covered under perishable foods if they dried up and everything you wanted died off on them. I guess what I'm saying is that perishable foods do not need to be consumed or necessarily dead to be considered under that blanket.
If it is the shipping company's fault(i.e. delay, damage) that your coral dies, why do you have to take the blame. Many companies deliver perishable foods overnight and will be compensated for any loss due to shipment complications, why shouldn't we. It does not take much to keep coral alive during shipment, just don't throw my package, drop my package, destroy my package, or send it to the wrong place.
I have attempted to be very selective in my wording as to not imply anything dishonest or untruthful. If they don't ask if it is live goods, why tell them. Call it perishable foods and if they ask if it was living, tell them the truth. DO NOT LIE, it is bad for your soul. Do not offer unnecessary information either.
Trying to save the world, one reef at a time!!!!!!!