Weedy Seadragon Rant Thread

[wildzoo]

You know what really makes me angry about Australia and the way we manage our wildlife?

Take a look at the guy who is the ONLY person allowed to take Weedy Seadragons from the wild.

Pang Quong. His application is full of broken English, incorrect grammar, coloured neon text, it's an embarrassment to the standards and integrity of our government. His proposal seems to be all about him, talking about how great he is. A very unprofessional proposal that anyone could slap together. I guess he has been doing it for 18 years now(as he tells us all in his proposal) and thinks he is above us mere mortals. Quong is probably a multimillionaire by now.

Victorian PQ Aquatics Fishery - application 2015 | Department of the Environment

He takes a gravid male from the wild and keeps the hatched babies, which usually number about 60, and then releases the male back into the wild( personally I would have thought releasing a wild animal that had been exposed to captive conditions and possible diseases found in captive populations would be a big no no but what do I know). And you know what he sells them for? He sells them for $10,000.00 each. He is charging $10,000.00 for a juvenile sea dragon. Absolutely outrageous.

How is this whole thing ethical? ONE layperson profiting from a free resource like this when the majority of people have to go out and get a real job. Absolute joke considering the high numbers of unemployed here.

He justifies it by saying he needs to go out everyday and catch live food. Reality check anyone can grow live food these days.

Would love to know how he came up with the figure of $10,000.00.

Why does the government only let one guy have a monopoly on this species? It creates uncompetitive conditions which allows him to charge ridiculous amounts of money. Surely allowing a more competitive market would be better for everyone.

The Australian government is run more like some feminist mafia than a democratic institution.

 

[Giant Panda]

The Australian government is run more like some feminist mafia than a democratic institution.

Erm... Too much Sherlock?

 

[wildzoo]

Erm... Too much Sherlock?

Haha not quite. Too much Good Wife more like it.

You have to admit the way permits are administered to one person is very suspicious. Sea dragons have a massive range. And yet only one person is allowed to trade in them. The selection process for issuing wildlife permits is about as transparent as the selection process for Australian of the year.

Shouldn't we be holding these Government organizations and their selection processes up to scrutiny? It reeks of murky back room deals by faceless officials with no accountability or justification for why someone is approved or denied. Why should someone get preference for trading in any animal just because they have been doing it for a long time? Smells of cronyism to me.

We see the same with land hermit crabs and a myriad of other animals here. Why do only a handful of people get to trade in a free resource that should belong to all of us?

At least if he is going to write a proposal in which he is going to charge $10,000.00 per animal, he should get it professionally proof read. Mixing up too and to, along with the myriad of other grammar errors and spelling mistakes, is laughable.

I saw a YouTube video of someone talking about their experience of dealing with him, and he sounded very arrogant, expecting money to be transferred at the drop of a hat. Who does he think he is. I detest that arrogant attitude of those intertwined with Government who think they can look down upon everyone else. I despise it.

Why are we even allowing the trade of vertebrates? I thought only invertebrates were allowed to be traded. Contradictions all the time with this Government. Welcome to the Socialist Dictatorship that is Australia, who just makes it up as they go along.

 

[Hix]

You need to qualify a lot of your statements, because after looking at his proposal all I'm hearing is sour grapes.

The permits are issued by the state of Victoria. According to his proposal he collects 4 dragons per year, and after breeding they are given to Melbourne Aquarium (not released).

Nowhere does it say he is the only person permitted a license to do this - what it does say is that previously people collected and exported adults, but that has stopped now because only captive bred juveniles may be exported. Nobody else apparently wants to try and breed them.

You state he's been doing this for 18 years, but then in a subsequent paragraph refer to him as a lay person.

And other statements are just spurious:

"His proposal seems to be all about him, talking about how great he is."

Of course it is. It's an application, he has to justify why he should be granted a license and that includes detailing his skills and experience. If you were to apply for a job you would do exactly the same thing.

"A very unprofessional proposal that anyone could slap together.

Anyone with 18 years of experience with syngnathids.

"How is this whole thing ethical? ONE layperson profiting from a free resource like this when the majority of people have to go out and get a real job."

The majority of people couldn't breed Dragons, and most people probably couldn't even keep them alive. That's why they have to have a real job. It's got nothing to do with ethics.

"His application is full of broken English, incorrect grammar, coloured neon text, it's an embarrassment to the standards and integrity of our government."

So are you suggesting the government should discriminate against him because his written English is not perfect?

Furthermore - Sea Dragons are on Appendix I of CITES, so to export them he needs CITES Export Permits from Australia, and CITES Import Permits in the destination country. Hard to get unless you can satisfy the authorities you meet their stringent regulations. If he's been exporting for the last 18 years then I would say he definitely knows what he's doing.

There are statements you made with no source for verification (eg. "the ONLY person allowed to take Weedy Seadragons from the wild." and "He takes a gravid male from the wild and keeps the hatched babies, which usually number about 60, and then releases the male back into the wild").

And statements you made which are contradictory:

Why do only a handful of people get to trade in a free resource that should belong to all of us?

and

Why are we even allowing the trade of vertebrates?

As for your comment

I thought only invertebrates were allowed to be traded.

I can tell you that large numbers of aquarium fish are exported every year, along with thousands of cattle, ship and pigs.

Your final comment

Welcome to the Socialist Dictatorship that is Australia, who just makes it up as they go along.

I would suggest you are doing the same.


Hix

 

[jayjds2]

Also, it's leafy sea dragons that are the issue. We breed weedy at 5 places in the US and they are in the pet trade.

 

[Hix]

Also, it's leafy sea dragons that are the issue. We breed weedy at 5 places in the US and they are in the pet trade.

No, it's Weedy Sea Dragons. Pang Quong isn't applying for a permit for Leafys.

Breeding Weedys in the US for the Pet Trade isn't a problem, as CITES applies to trade across international borders. If your breeders are exporting then they would have gone through the same rigmarole for exporting as this guy has.



Hix

 

[jayjds2]

Perhaps ways have changed since I last read up on how the dragons are exported. Are you saying that nobody is exporting leafys?

 

[Hix]

I don't know about Leafys. The permit applied for above is for Weedys, and two species of Seahorse.



Hix

 

[Chlidonias]

I don't know about Leafys. The permit applied for above is for Weedys, and two species of Seahorse.

Pang Quong also caught leafy seadragons for captive-hatching on his previous permits. That species however cannot now be exported so it has been dropped off the most recent permit renewal application. The weedy seadragon is still allowed to be exported.

 

[jayjds2]

Can't be exported at all? Ugh . Why is that? Thank goodness we had dragon mating dances at two facilities last year.