Transporting Sea Stars

I'm going to be diving in Hawaii in a couple of months and I want to
bring back some sea stars for my aquarium. I'm waiting for an answer
from my airline on how doable this is to transport these little guys on
the flight. Assuming it's not doable, does anyone have any
recommendations on how I can ship marine life from Hawaii? Thanks.

"Jack" <ipaintbigthings@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1149693408.340963.252310@y43g2000cwc.googlegr oups.com...
> I'm going to be diving in Hawaii in a couple of months and I want to
> bring back some sea stars for my aquarium. I'm waiting for an answer
> from my airline on how doable this is to transport these little guys on
> the flight. Assuming it's not doable, does anyone have any
> recommendations on how I can ship marine life from Hawaii? Thanks.

Let me know as soon as you find out. I'm hoping to bring back one of those
green sea turtles for my swimming pool, maybe a monk seal for the dogs to
play with.

Greg Mossman wrote:
> "Jack" <ipaintbigthings@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:1149693408.340963.252310@y43g2000cwc.googlegr oups.com...
> > I'm going to be diving in Hawaii in a couple of months and I want to
> > bring back some sea stars for my aquarium. I'm waiting for an answer
> > from my airline on how doable this is to transport these little guys on
> > the flight. Assuming it's not doable, does anyone have any
> > recommendations on how I can ship marine life from Hawaii? Thanks.
>
> Let me know as soon as you find out. I'm hoping to bring back one of those
> green sea turtles for my swimming pool, maybe a monk seal for the dogs to
> play with.


I know that FedEx brought the walruses to the Pt. Defiance Aquarium,
from Chicago's Brrokfield zoo. I was planning to use them for the
Orcas I'd like to send back to Ohio to my son to put in his Koi pond.

*

"Star" wrote

>> Let me know as soon as you find out. I'm hoping to bring back one of
>> those
>> green sea turtles for my swimming pool, maybe a monk seal for the dogs to
>> play with.

> I know that FedEx brought the walruses to the Pt. Defiance Aquarium,
> from Chicago's Brrokfield zoo. I was planning to use them for the
> Orcas I'd like to send back to Ohio to my son to put in his Koi pond.

What great ideas. Anyone know if bottle nosed dolphin can survive on a diet
of oscars and grass carp? They'd look really cool cavorting in the lake
behind my house.

Lee

Lee Bell wrote:
> "Star" wrote
>
>
>>>Let me know as soon as you find out. I'm hoping to bring back one of
>>>those
>>>green sea turtles for my swimming pool, maybe a monk seal for the dogs to
>>>play with.
>
>
>>I know that FedEx brought the walruses to the Pt. Defiance Aquarium,
>>from Chicago's Brrokfield zoo. I was planning to use them for the
>>Orcas I'd like to send back to Ohio to my son to put in his Koi pond.
>
>
> What great ideas. Anyone know if bottle nosed dolphin can survive on a diet
> of oscars and grass carp? They'd look really cool cavorting in the lake
> behind my house.
>

I had a hell of a time getting that manatee back to Virginia last month.
Pulled both front wheels off the ground and I had a hell of a time
steering.

On 7 Jun 2006 08:16:48 -0700, "Jack" <ipaintbigthings@yahoo.com>
wrote:

>I'm going to be diving in Hawaii in a couple of months and I want to
>bring back some sea stars for my aquarium. I'm waiting for an answer
>from my airline on how doable this is to transport these little guys on
>the flight. Assuming it's not doable, does anyone have any
>recommendations on how I can ship marine life from Hawaii? Thanks.

Call an importer and see how it's done. You'll need some sort of
license to do it properly. You don't want the inspectors busting open
your Styrofoam containers looking for bombs.

Don't forget about parasites. Although not inherent on invertebrates,
can be carried on their backs. Placing fresh stock in a mature marine
aquarium can be risky. Been there and done that with fish in the
Atlantic. Fortunately, copper is the cure. With invertebrates ,
quarantine is the only solution as copper will kill them.

My guess would that it would be more trouble than it's worth.

Jack wrote:
> I'm going to be diving in Hawaii in a couple of months and I want to
> bring back some sea stars for my aquarium. I'm waiting for an answer
> from my airline on how doable this is to transport these little guys on
> the flight. Assuming it's not doable, does anyone have any
> recommendations on how I can ship marine life from Hawaii? Thanks.

Good question. I like sharing my diving trips with others too. There
are a lot of peculiar people on the Internet, so don't let those goofy
posts sway you.

Most airlines let you ship live marine life. Ask them about "shipping",
not carrying as baggage. If your airline doesn't allow shipping, you
can ship via mail or the commercial people. That's what the pet shops
do. I don't have details on this, but I'm curious about that. If you
find out how to do that, please let me know.

Oh, yeah, one person mentioned about something being risky with mixing
fresh stock with existing marine life. Sure, that's always a problem,
will always be a problem, but if you maintain your water and keep an
eye on things, you can minimize the risk. I like to keep several tanks
and gradually move things around to keep a stasis in check. You don't
even need anything fancy. A scientist friend uses beer kegs to keep
samples in (he has a funny looking filter system though).

Good luck!

Greg Mossman wrote:
> <dive_much@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:1149912972.838632.40480@g10g2000cwb.googlegro ups.com...
>
> > Good question. I like sharing my diving trips with others too. There
> > are a lot of peculiar people on the Internet, so don't let those goofy
> > posts sway you.
>
> Most of us share with photos, video, or words. We don't have to take a
> living piece of the ecosystem home with us to prove we were there. If you
> think mocking someone for wanting to steal a sea star is goofy, you've
> obviously never been to Hawaii. The islands curse you if you even dare
> bring back a piece of lava rock.
>
> When you visit someone's home, do you always pocket an ashtray or piece of
> silverware?

He probably takes their dog.

*

> > Good question. I like sharing my diving trips with others too. There
> > are a lot of peculiar people on the Internet, so don't let those goofy
> > posts sway you.
>
> Most of us share with photos, video, or words. We don't have to take a
> living piece of the ecosystem home with us to prove we were there.

You are correct, we don't have to, but some of us do. Some people even
kill animals and eat their flesh.

> If you
> think mocking someone for wanting to steal a sea star is goofy, you've
> obviously never been to Hawaii.

Please reread your original reply. It reads as though you were mocking
the person who asked the initial question. I thought it was goofy that
someone would mock another person for asking a simple question who
wanted a genuine answer, but instead got a reply about turtles and
seals that has nothing to do with the thread.

> The islands curse you if you even dare
> bring back a piece of lava rock.

Some people don't believe in curses, and lava rock has nothing to do
with the original question. We might as well start talking about alien
abduction and cow mutilations. It's proper to stick to the subject of
the thread. If we're going off topic it is proper to start a new
thread.

> When you visit someone's home, do you always pocket an ashtray or piece of
> silverware?

It's good to engage in intellectual debate, and I appreciate your
intent with this question. However, many scuba divers don't subscribe
to your point, but, in the interrest of debate, let us look at what
happens if the original poster does not take a sea star from the ocean.
It is possible for sea stars to over populate an area resulting in
starvation of a large number of sea stars. If this were to happen, many
sea stars could live a slow anguishing death. However, if the poster
were to safely and humanely remove a sea star, take it home, feed it,
nourish it, give it other sea stars to frolic with, that sea star could
live a long healthy life.

Another point: If the poster did not remove a sea star from the ocean
but instead went to a pet store to purchase a sea star, it is unknown
how the pet store sea star was harvested. Did some untrained
third-world country scuba diver risk potential death to themselves (as
many third-world lobster divers do) to overharvest a reef of sea stars,
possibly killing many sea stars in the process due to uncaring
harvesting methods and pursuit of the almighty buck (possibly less...).
So, does the poster go to a pet store to get a sea star, which likely
performs more harm to the environment, or simply plucks one from the
ocean that they know is safe, healthy, allows other sea stars in the
area more food, and has the benefit of knowing they did a good thing by
removing "bad harvesting" from picture?

You may or may not agree with me, and I may or may not agree with you,
but that's not important. What is important is netiquette. Either
answer a qestion and move on or don't answer and don't mock someone who
doesn't have the same beliefs as you. Stick to the topic. If you want
to go off on someone please start a separate topic (you can start a
topic to go off on people who harvest sea stars if you like - that
gives others to see the subject line and engage or move on...).

Have a nice day.

dive_much@yahoo.com wrote:
>>> Good question. I like sharing my diving trips with others too. There
>>> are a lot of peculiar people on the Internet, so don't let those goofy
>>> posts sway you.
>> Most of us share with photos, video, or words. We don't have to take a
>> living piece of the ecosystem home with us to prove we were there.
>
> You are correct, we don't have to, but some of us do. Some people even
> kill animals and eat their flesh.
>
>> If you
>> think mocking someone for wanting to steal a sea star is goofy, you've
>> obviously never been to Hawaii.
>
> Please reread your original reply. It reads as though you were mocking
> the person who asked the initial question. I thought it was goofy that
> someone would mock another person for asking a simple question who
> wanted a genuine answer, but instead got a reply about turtles and
> seals that has nothing to do with the thread.
>
>> The islands curse you if you even dare
>> bring back a piece of lava rock.
>
> Some people don't believe in curses, and lava rock has nothing to do
> with the original question. We might as well start talking about alien
> abduction and cow mutilations. It's proper to stick to the subject of
> the thread. If we're going off topic it is proper to start a new
> thread.
>
>> When you visit someone's home, do you always pocket an ashtray or piece of
>> silverware?
>
> It's good to engage in intellectual debate, and I appreciate your
> intent with this question. However, many scuba divers don't subscribe
> to your point, but, in the interrest of debate, let us look at what
> happens if the original poster does not take a sea star from the ocean.
> It is possible for sea stars to over populate an area resulting in
> starvation of a large number of sea stars. If this were to happen, many
> sea stars could live a slow anguishing death. However, if the poster
> were to safely and humanely remove a sea star, take it home, feed it,
> nourish it, give it other sea stars to frolic with, that sea star could
> live a long healthy life.
>
> Another point: If the poster did not remove a sea star from the ocean
> but instead went to a pet store to purchase a sea star, it is unknown
> how the pet store sea star was harvested. Did some untrained
> third-world country scuba diver risk potential death to themselves (as
> many third-world lobster divers do) to overharvest a reef of sea stars,
> possibly killing many sea stars in the process due to uncaring
> harvesting methods and pursuit of the almighty buck (possibly less...).
> So, does the poster go to a pet store to get a sea star, which likely
> performs more harm to the environment, or simply plucks one from the
> ocean that they know is safe, healthy, allows other sea stars in the
> area more food, and has the benefit of knowing they did a good thing by
> removing "bad harvesting" from picture?

my god.

I need my "hip deep shit" boots to read this thread.
its way too deep in here now.


>