The US government is proposing extending the harvest moratorium on deep-water Gold Corals through June 30, 2028.
The current moratorium ended June 30 of this year, according to a notice published this week.
These corals are very slow-growing and can live over a thousand years, the US National Marine Fisheries Service states in the notice:
“Extending the moratorium for another 5 years would ensure that no harvesting of gold corals takes place and would allow time for additional research that could inform future management decisions regarding sustainable harvest of this resource.”
Gold corals live in deep water, about 100m/328ft to 1,500m/4,921ft below the surface. According to the NMFS, small amounts of these corals are used to adorn jewelry.
Check out the full notice here.
