Is that Aquarium Coral Farmed or Wild Coral? You Can’t Tell

How can people with a home aquarium tell the difference between illegally harvested wild coral and sustainably farmed coral? They can't. So in 2018, the Indonesian government banned the export of corals for the aquarist trade.

But, a lot of people living on the shores of Indonesia make a living from the sea, and the ban proved disastrous for coral cultivators like Mr. Supriyatno, who grows corals on racks off Nusa Lembongan, near Bali. No longer able to sell his coral for export to aquarists in Europe and China, he couldn't afford to pay the staff, and his underwater farm went bust.

Now the government has reversed the ban, which had curtailed much of the illegal harvesting, and environmentalists fear that there will be a resurgence in illegal harvesting because the scofflaws know it's too difficult to differentiate between farmed and wild coral.