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Barefoot Coral Calcium Supreme
Coral Reefs and Damage from Calcium Harvesting.
A lot of people are concerned about the coral reefs, and about potential damage to the reefs from the harvest practices involved in coral calcium commerce. How is coral calcium harvested and how could it possibly not harm the coral reefs? So, we have researched the facts of coral mining, and they are as follows;
Mining coral has been done for hundreds of years as it is an excellent construction product for roads and buildings. This initially was done only on land based coral calcium.
The coral reefs disintegrate over time and the broken off bits, pieces, and grains known as coral sand (coral calcium) is washed out to sea by ocean currents. The coral sand that is harvested by gentle suction dredges, is usually 2 to 3 miles downstream from the reefs.
Any turbidity that is produced, is washed out to sea away from the reefs by the ocean's currents.
The amount of coral sands harvested for human consumption is less than 1% of the total construction coral sands produced.
Every year 2.4 million tons of coral sands are naturally produced by the Okinawan reefs, while only a few hundred tons are being mined (over 10,000:1).
Authorization to gather the marine coral is given to only 3 Work Cooperatives under the strict regulation of the Okinawan government and only allowed in specific areas. Marine Coral Ltd. was the first company to use the harvested coral sands for human consumption and they currently have a patent in the U.S. for its use as a nutrient supplement.
Okinawa gets 5 typhoons each year that produce turbidity in the reefs that would be equivalent to thousands of coral calcium dredging operations on top of the reefs, and yet the reefs are not harmed.
Professor Makato Tsuchiya, a marine biologist at the University of Ryukyus in Okinawa, who specializes in the respiration and feeding of the reefs believes that the turbidity is a mechanism that feeds the reefs, and completely disagrees with the concept that mining the sands 3 miles away downstream could damage the reefs. Dr. Tsuchiya is also Chairman of the 10th International Coral reef Symposium to be held in Okinawa in 2004, and also Chairman of the International Exchange Committee.
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