My opinion, that's exactly where I think the ethics come into play because internationally shipped livestock are at highest mortality risk. Flipping corals straight out of the box puts all the risk and likelihood of death in the hands of the buyer for a quick margin. Let's be honest, there's a lot of unqualified people in this hobby who will chase the cheapest deal instead of being responsible owners and I think that's the point of this rule (though overreaching as it's written right now). It's not to shame and stop people from doing this, but as an organization it's not something to promote.
Vendors are 100% free to organize this on their pages and no one's going to ban you from BAR for partaking.
I would sincerely hope that an LFS is more capable of receiving and conditioning livestock than the average hobbyist to give the best chance of survival. Keyword is average hobbyist. On the other end of the spectrum, I couldn't see BAR partnering with LFS that can't, such as 6th Ave, Violet, or retailers than have been known for disease problems because they turn and burn livestock inventory.
My vote is only for international. I have no issue with bag lots and group buys from Biota and other US based vendors/wholesalers.
Are newbies or casual hobbyists
from BAR really participating in these types of deals? I doubt it. So what are you really trying to protect from policing every one from this activity. Do I think the average BAR member is as capable of receiving coral and fish as an LFS and "conditioning" it - which to be honest, I don't even know what that means except masking where potentially unhealthy livestock and mortality risk exists. Absolutely. If they're not, then BAR is not accomplishing their stated goal.
However, I still don't see how this indicates an unethical practice. Again, there's nothing malicious, shady or untruthful going on. Everything about what is going on is out in the open. Taking on that additional risk is not for everyone, that I agree, but saying this is somehow wrong (i.e., unethical) is where I have the problem. Also, policing this activity that so many members have stated they enjoy, tells me it's not as "unethical" or wrong as it's trying to be portrayed.
Edit: all LFSes turn and burn except those that are actively QTing. It's a matter of how well they maintain their tanks and clean up messes/mass disease and deaths that occur then removing it from view from the hobbyist. Obviously, some are worse at taking care of their tanks. But husbandry and maintaining healthy tanks is a different topic than this issue at hand. Disease and pests exist in most LFS tanks, please don't kid yourself by thinking they don't. QT from everywhere.
Edit 2: You can take this to the other side of the spectrum. People buy QTed fish from HTA because they don't want to tolerate the risk of an un-QTed fish for one reason or another. Perhaps they don't want to set up a whole new QT system or want to spend the time it takes to QT a fish well. Or they deem the risk of losing a fish in QT isn't worth it to them for time or monetary reasons. But this comes at an added cost to the hobbyist. They don't even think that buying fish from AC or Neptune's is worth their time, does that make AC or Neptune's not QTing fish unethical? Of course not. It's just the risk level a hobbyist is willing to accept.
What if you were provided evidence that hobbiests actually have a better record of keeping individual piecese of coral alive direct out of the box from import than the "best" LFSs in the area. Who gives more attention to detail and care - the LFS that is recieving 1000s of fish and hundreds of corals in a single night or the hobbiest that is showing up at midnight for a single piece they special ordered weeks before? I have polled customers that have purchased from me night of import as well as asking past and current managers/employees of various local LFS and the consensus is that the hobbiest do far better than the LFSs. This is in no way saying LFS don't know what they're doing - but 4-10 staff members divided between 2000+ live stock isn't the same as a single person staring at a single new piece of livestock.
To add to this, while I'm sure that it is everyone's goal of having healthy livestock at the end of the day, the means to which an LFS is going to take versus people that participate in this type of deal is probably very different. I'll openly admit that I'm not your average user and I'll go further probably than most for new incoming coral. However, hobbyists will generally spend more resources on time, dips, medication/antibiotics, salt, water and electricity for a QT. I can promise you most hobbyists will try to do more to save a coral or fish than your local LFS (excluding HTA since they do QT with medication, but at an additional cost).
