Content area
Full text
Precious red coral, Corallium rubrum (originally Madrepora rubra, Linnaeus 1758; Figure 1), comes from the Mediterranean Sea and adjacent Atlantic Ocean (Zibrowius et al. 1984). It has been appreciated for its beauty and used in jewellery and objets d’art since antiquity (Hickson 1924; Iwasaki 2010; Tsounis et al. 2010; Cooper et al. 2011; Santangelo et al. 2012; Fürst et al. 2016). Mediterranean red coral has been supplied to the jewellery industry through two sources: primarily by fishing present-day colonies, and secondarily from stockpiles of long-dead coral branches collected from sea-floor sediments (mostly during 1875–1914; Bavestrello et al. 2021). Indeed, large amounts of C. rubrum red coral harvested in Italy in the last 150 years came from the sediments of the Sciacca banks of Sicily, Italy (Rajola 2012; Cattaneo-Vietti et al. 2016; e.g. Figure 2). For example, 16,330 t of Sciacca coral were collected over 34 years in the Sicily Channel from the late 19th to early 20th centuries (Cattaneo-Vietti et al. 2016). Jewels and beads of Sciacca coral are still commercialised, particularly from dealers in Torre del Greco, Italy, and in antiques markets. Other Corallium species, such as C. japonicum (Kishinouye 1903) and Pleurocorallium elatius (formerly C. elatius, Ridley 1882), both of which come from the western Pacific Ocean, have been traded since the second half of the 19th century (Cooper et al. 2011; Nonaka et al. 2014). Interestingly, long-dead coral branches (some exceeding 5,000 years old) have also been collected and traded in the Pacific since the 1900s (Okumura et al. 2021).
[Figure omitted: See PDF.]
[Figure omitted: See PDF.]
Various studies of precious corals concerning their history, economy, fishing techniques, biology, ecology, mineralogy, chemistry and crystallography are referenced in two proceedings of international workshops (Bussoletti et al. 2010; Precious Coral Protection and Development Association 2012). As noted by Cooper et al. (2011), precious corals are vulnerable to over-exploitation, and various trade regulations are enforced by different countries. International agreements concerning these species are promulgated by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). In 2011, four Coralliidae species (C. japonicum, Pleurocorallium elatius, P. konojoi and P. secundum1