Turning Japanese

Check out this AFP story about the Japanese lobbying taking place. Monaco's ambassador (Monaco has proposed the bluefin listing) is not happy. Today has been a long day of discussions about the implementation of the Convention officially, and unofficially lots of hallway chatter about who will/won't support species proposals. We won't get to marine species until Thursday at the earliest. Coralliidae may come up Thursday as it has a supporting resolution attached to its proposal (as does bluefin) and those proposals generally go to working groups meaning......probably no days off for those who are lucky enough to care about bluefin and/or coral.

I had lunch with a representative from Bahrain who was very supportive of red and pink coral! He's a diver and has seen the declines with his own eyes....unfortunately....Bahrain is not a signatory to the Convention. Next time, Bahrain. In the meantime, see if you can get some of your neighboring countries on board, OK?

Final bit of news...the TRAFFIC ID guide to red and pink coral has arrived and looks gorgeous. Even better, it clearly addresses the concerns around implementation of red and pink coral under CITES.