By
Bradley Blackburn
September 25, 2025 / 8:53 PM EDT
/ CBS News
New York — They are animals without eyes or the ability to speak, but if the live corals at the New York Aquarium could talk, they would have quite a story.
Aaron Brett, a coral expert with the aquarium, can tell their story for them.
Earlier this year, somewhere in Indonesia, about 200 coral pieces were plucked from the water, packaged up, and sent by plane to the U.S., where they were discovered and seized in May by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, Brett explains.
Trading in coral is highly restricted. According to the aquarium, the seized coral is protected under the Endangered Species Act and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, an international conservation agreement that targets the illegal wildlife trade.
“They were probably going to pet shops,” Brett told CBS News.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, there are two dozen coral species that are protected under the Endangered Species Act. Of those, 22 are listed as threatened and two as endangered.
After being seized, federal authorities asked if the New York Aquarium could care for the corals, which were in poor health. In 2019, the aquarium also received confiscated coral from USFW. Brett describes the aquarium as a kind of “coral hospital.”
“These animals were in transit for five days,” Brett said. “If there was no other public aquarium institution that could take them, they would die.”
Aquarium staff took CBS News behind the scenes to the tank where they have been supporting their recovery. “A lot of them had lost a lot of their color, and they weren’t looking great,” Brett said. Since May, many of the corals have done so well that they have been moved to public display.
“We have to be really careful,” said Cora Monroe, a senior aquarist, who helps the corals transition to bigger tanks. “…One of the main reasons why we have them here is to educate people. They are ambassadors for their species out in the wild.”
Their unexpected journey is a way for visitors to see how the illegal wildlife trade threatens species and ecosystems around the globe. About 25% of marine life depends on coral reefs, according to the NOAA. “The most important thing to know, is knowing where your animals are coming from,” Brett said.
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