John,

As I understand it and with my dealing with the Fish and Wildlife folks, it
doesn't matter if you pay someone to take the coral. Once anything gets on
the CITES list you cannot ship into or out of the country. If you have ever
seen the form that you are to fill out for all Fish and Wild life shipments
there is a place for country of origin. That takes the guess work out for the
F/W agent and when it is only from certain countries they just check the form
to see if it qualifies. By the way, they charge for this inspection for
incoming packages.

Right now the US Postal service does not do these inspection, which as I
understand it, irks the F/W folks. So if you use the postal service you
should not have to worry about these things. Also, certain ports are more
ambitious in administering the letter of the law, than others. At least at
present. Ain't government wonderful. I just got through paying $460.00 in
inspection fees, because my shipments came through Alaska. That's a whole
nother story.

Generally speaking if they take your package, it is gone, and I mean gone.
They don't auction things off like other government agencies, they destroy
the entire contents. Just another thing I learned the hard way in becoming a
dealer.

We covered this before. By law if the package contains more than 6 items you
are required to have your F/W export license. Things seem somewhat hap
hazzard at present, but when it's your shells involved, it soesn't seem so
hap hazzard.

If you're in the area, the Boston Mal Club (second oldest shell club in the
US) meets tonight. 8 PM Harvard MCZ.

Frank (Wet, but no snow yet, in Massachusetts)