Commercially Harvested Red Coral For Sale!

As the owner of an ocean-friendly apparel and jewelry company I get solicitations from various manufacturers and suppliers trying to sell me something ocean-related on a regular basis.  Most of them try selling me illegal or endangered animal parts such as sea turtle shell, abalone, and coral.  Maybe they don’t realize that “ocean-friendly” means that I am trying to stop the destruction of the oceans, not add to it.

Yesterday I was sent an email offering to sell me red coral from Tunisia.

Dear Sir, Firstly, so Actually we are a wholesaler of red coral in Tunisia country. and we have many types of red coral: barbaresse coral , good coral, royal coral. we are a company of red coral, it’s name is Jaafar coral. In fact, the red coral is from inmediterany zone and we have a big network in the market of coral between Italy and other mediterian countries. Actually, I send to you many pictures of our product: so you will find 3 types of red coral which we have. Please take a look ! If you need any other details just contact us: Company  Coral Jaafar address: 05 Rue Fadhel Ben Achour Beja 9000 Tunisia

Here are some actual pictures sent with the email.

What is Red Coral?

Red coral is a precious coral that is primarily harvested in the Mediterranean off of countries such as Tunisia, Italy, Spain and France.  Red and pink corals are used in jewelry and carvings, which can be bought world-wide.  The exploitation of coral for decorative purposes has been going on for thousands of years, but with globalization, coral populations have been shrinking at an unsustainable rate due to an increased demand for it world-wide.

Unfortunately, commercial harvesting is not the only thing that is killing red coral.  Red coral is highly sensitive to sea temperatures and global warming is leading to the death of large populations of red coral in the Mediterranean.  A recent example of this occurred during the summers between 1999 and 2003, when the Mediterranean had unseasonably high sea temperatures – as a result, red coral populations were severely hurt.

Many countries are beginning to put regulations on the trade of coral, but by the time these regulations take place and are enforced, I am afraid it may be too late for some coral species.

The Problem

I have a confession to make. When I started Sand Shack I did not know what red coral was, how it was being used, and why it was bad to use.  Looking back I bought and sold some samples of jewelry that included red coral.  This makes me sick to think of, as now I am adamantly against the use of red coral in jewelry….however, my experience further illustrates why very little is being done to curb the destruction and sale of coral. The problem can be boiled down to: PEOPLE DON’T KNOW.  First of all, people don’t know what coral is when they see it used in a piece of jewelry or other product, it is just a pretty red thing.  Furthermore, people don’t know that it is a slow growing creature that is harvested in unsustainable quantities and practices.

It is important that people are educated about coral, because the more people who know, the less the demand will be.

Tagged as: commercial coral, global warming, jewelry, mediterranean, red coral, tunisia, unsustainable