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Questions?
Contact us by email: |
Terra Sub Aqua (TSA) is the successful culmination of ethics and business. Our company existed on paper only until the 1995 decision to ban all live rock harvesting from the Florida Keys. Through research with University of Miami and eventual licensing through the
Federal Government we have enjoyed six years of successful business in the aquaculture industry.
We are licensed to use relatively non-productive areas such as sand flats to be seeded with quarried rock. This "dead rock" becomes "live rock" over a series of years, growing encrusting marine organisms including corals seeded from the reef around it. When the rock is judged to be mature, we harvest it by hand by SCUBA. From there the rock is containerized and never leaves the water! That is one of our best successes; by aerating the water all the way from the ocean to your door, die-off is minimized. It's as close to not needing to be cured as we can make it! Our system is sustainable, that goes without saying, but also introduces new habitat to the surrounding reef. Our rock goes through the natural succession of life starting with the dead rock being covered with marine macroalgaes and populated with various fish fry seeking shelter. At this point the rock looks like a 1960's reef tank, but the local tang population quickly flocks to the All-You-Can-Eat algae buffet. After about a year the rock stabilizes to something much more visually pleasing. Coralline algae and sponges replace the macro algae, the tang population is evened out with grunts, stone-fish, and moray eels. At this point the rock could be harvested, but we prefer to let it sit a few more years because this is where the magic really happens. With the progression of the next two years we have found cleaning stations setup by cleaner shrimp, the occasional chrinoid (feather starfish) AND initial growths of fire coral, porites coral, and gorgonians. According to marine life surveys, our operation has been responsible for over 1000% increase in the population and biodiversity in the area of our operations since we began in 1996. |