Live soft and hard corals, giant clams, zooanthids and corallimorphs make up a valuable portion of the marine ornamental trade. Nearly all these animals are sold for stocking in home aquariums in the USA, EU and, increasingly, Asia. Fish and corals sold in the trade are almost exclusively collected from the wild;but more recently simple farming techniques are being used to sustainably grow these products. MERIP currently works with more than 30 farmers in Pohnpei who are sustainably farming marine ornamentals.

Sustainable Farming techniques 

Farming techniques are simple, whereby a small cutting is removed from a mother colony, and planted for grow-out; a process called fragmentation. Properly maintained mother colonies can be cropped repeatedly without impact to wild stocks. This allows a consistent supply and quality of corals, which cannot be replicated in the wild collection industry. MERIP buys corals from farmers for export via airfreight, working with regional private sector wholesalers in an effort to promote sustainable development in Micronesia and to reduce unfair competition.

MERIP presently only sells corals to Micronesia based wholesalers. Our main buyer is the Marshall Islands Mariculture Farm (MIMF) in Majuro, Marshall Islands, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ocean, Reefs and Aquariums (ORA), the world’s largest producer of farmed anemone, or “Nemo” fishes for the marine ornamental trade. This highly ethical and respected company sells only aquacultured products and has some 70 species of corals available. Our other wholesale partner in Micronesia is Micronesian Management and Marketing Enterprises in Kosrae, FSM, the site of Micronesia’s, and possibly the world’s, largest giant clam farm.

Today, MERIP has a stock list of more than 30 sustainably farmed marine ornamentals which are sold on the international market. Please see our Marine Ornamental Gallery.