productivity of the Looe Key coral reef for future generations. 

 In addition, the majority of those reviewers who commented on this issue 

 did not support the permitting system for commercial collecting. For 

 these reasons NOAA proposes to prohibit all tropical specimen collecting 

 except by permit for scientific and educational purposes. 



The proposed regulation, however, does not necessarily exclude all 

 commercial collection. For example, permits could be given for collecting 

 for sale to public aquaria. It is unlikely however that there will be as 

 many applications for this type of permit as there would be for full scale 

 commercial collecting. Section 938.8 of the proposed regulations details 

 the criteria the Assistant Administrator must consider in granting a 

 permit; (1) the general professional and financial responsibility of 

 the applicant, (2) the appropriateness of the methods envisioned to the 

 purpose(s) of the activity, (3) the extent to which the conduct of any 

 permitted activity may diminish or enhance the value of the Sanctuary, 

 (4) the end value of the activity (i.e., if the intended activity is (a) 

 for research related to the resources of the Sanctuary, or (b) to further 

 the educational value of the Sanctuary), and (5) other matters as deemed 

 appropriate. Each permit application will be judged on individual merit. 



In conclusion, NOAA believes that this regulation will protect 

 the resource, and allow collecting that is consistent with sanctuary 

 goals and limited enough in scope that monitoring and enforcement can 

 be conducted adequately. 



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