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Wow lots of questions. I'll my best to answer them, and hope others will to.
Sponges just don't collect and ship well. They need to stay submerged in water the whole time, and in terms of collecting for the hobby, that just doesn't work. Most corals are broken off... taken up to a little raft.... thrown up into a bucket... taken back to a facility.... sits on the floor for a while... some guy throws it in a tank. Sponges can't handle that trauma.
As for the hobby impact. Sure the hobby removes thousands of pounds of cora, rock, and invert life every year. We're certainly part of the problem.
However, global warming will kill more corals this year than all of the hobby collected corals over all the years added up. So do we damage? Compartively no.
As for live rock, it is actually growing faster (so it is reported) than it is being harvested, even in heavy collection zones such as the Fijian Island. In some places, the coral is basically doomed right now, so anything that is removed and taken for the hobby is actually the best chance that coral has to survive. In fact far more live rock is taken from the reefs to make roads than is taken for the hobby.
But then again, in other areas, over collection is decreasing the health of the reefs.
Marine Aquarium Council (MAC http://www.aquariumcouncil.org - www.aquariumcouncil.org ) is the group responsible for regulating, and deciding what is a renewable collection. They govern from the collection site all the way to the wholesalers (struggling with retail so far). Regulation is in the beggining stages, only been around really for a couple years. In some areas there still aren't any regulations.
Adam
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Come to a meeting, they�re fun!
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