Cooper, E. W. T., Torntore, S. J., Leung, A. S. M., Shadbolt, T., Dawe, C.

Guide to the identification of precious and semi-precious corals in commercial trade

2011

TRAFFIC North America and WWF-Canada

244

"Historically, the term precious coral? referred to specimens of the genus Corallium (red and pink coral) used in manufacturing jewellery and art objects. Today precious coral? is often used more generally as a term for any coral species used for jewellery and other high-value objectsincluding coral species used to imitate the more valuable species. Grigg (1984) refers to both precious corals and semi-precious corals, which are more descriptive terms for the various types of coral used for jewellery in international trade, and are the terms the authors have chosen to use in this guide. The definition of precious? vs. semi-precious? is somewhat arbitrary, but for the purposes of this publication the precious corals are those that have a hard, solid skeleton that can be readily polished; and the semi-precious corals are those that have a porous skeleton that does not take a high polish without the use of resin or other filler. The skeleton of almost any hard coral couldhypothetically be made into beads, jewellery and similar products. But production of a guide to the identification of every coral with a skeleton hard enough to use as jewellery would hardly be feasible, or needed. This guide is therefore focused specifically on those taxa that are commonly found in commercial trade, and therefore comprise the great majority of precious and semi-precious coral products available. As a result, there are some coral taxa that may be infrequently encountered that have not been described in this publication."

Grant: NOAA Award NA08NMF4630456, Ernie Cooper

NA08NMF4630456