June 22nd, 2007 |Science | V.M.

What a difference 48 hours makes: On 13 June, delegates to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species voted to list all species in the genus Corallium (pink and red corals) in Appendix II, which limits trade. But on 15 June, after the conference was scheduled to end, they voted by secret ballot to reverse that decision, leaving the jewel-like colonies to the mercy of the coral hunters who scrape the sea floor with heavy trawlers for their prey. Red corals are one of the most valuable wildlife commodities, with a finished necklace costing $20,000 or more. Over the past 2 decades, red coral harvests have dropped by 90% because of overcollecting, a problem the Appendix II listing was intended to correct. “These animals are sitting ducks on the sea floor,” fumes Elliott Norse, president of the Marine Conservation Biology Institute in Bellevue, Washington, one of many outraged scientists. Norse compares the trawling method of harvesting corals to “clear-cutting a forest as a way to get a couple of ginseng plants.” Studies indicate that coral populations never fully recover from the trawling. After several delegates had left for home, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco—all coral-exporting countries—moved to reopen the debate and called for the secret ballot. This time, the resolution to protect the Corallium failed to gain the necessary two-thirds majority. “Obviously, there’s something wrong with an organization that makes a decision and then unmakes it—after the meeting is over,” says Norse. –V.M.

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Source: Science