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Reef Thief Sentenced To 10 Months In Jail

(CBS) MIAMI A Miami man has been sentenced to nearly a year in jail for stealing a restricted species from the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

In addition to the 10 months behind bars, 40-year old Alexandre Alvarenga will also forfeit his boat.

Two German men were caught at Miami International Airport last November with 500 corallimoph specimens of the "Ricordea florida" variety in their luggage. They told investigators they were planning to sell them to the Dusseldorf aquarium trade. The men then allegedly told investigators Alvarenga had helped them steal the protected corallimorphs from the waters off Cudjoe Key.

Investigators planted a tracking device on Alvarenga's boat and arrested him in January at the Cudjoe Key Marina with a load of 400 of the protected specimens.

The colorful mushroom shaped living coral is highly prized for salt water aquarium buffs. To be harvested, they must be chiseled off the rocks which can disturbed, and potentially destroy, the surrounding protected coral. A single Ricordea polyp of gold or orange sells on the Web for $12 or more, a clump of polyps even more.

The specimens seized from Alvarenga have been kept alive at the Mote Marine Laboratory on Summerland Key. Researchers plan to restore them to the sea floor and try to repair the damage done. The cost will exceed $78-thousand.

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