Above sea coral was a thriving reef thousands of years ago before it was geologically pushed up above the water. Through the eons of time layers of dust that slowly became layers of topsoil covered this above sea coral. This is the state of the coral before being harvested by Coral LLC: pristine white fossilized coral heads protected beneath a layer of soil. The actual harvesting process is similar to a typical sand or gravel quarry here in the United States. The soil is scraped away and the coral material is excavated. The pristine white coral material runs in horizontal layers, intermixed with other brown and gray material. Special care is taken to separate the white coral from the dirty material.

After the white coral is separated, it is taken to the grinding facility where it undergoes a 3 stage grinding process before purification with ozone.

There are four major reasons not to consume or buy marine coral:

1. Extracting marine coral destroys our delicate marine eco-system.
2. Marine coral is contaminated with high levels of lead.
3. Commercial marine coral must be heated to be purified of toxic chemicals and heavy ocean metals. This process alters the structure of minerals contained therein.
4. Drastically changing the balance of calcium to magnesium, as found in nature, is not wise.

To the contrary, fossilized stony coral is harvested from land quarries. This coral has been out of the ocean for thousands, if not, millions of years. It is the water that has passed through fossilized stony coral that the Okinawa's drink on a regular basis. Consuming this water and the minerals from out of the sea, fossilized stony coral has contributed to the people of Okinawa living a long and healthy life, not marine coral.

Here are a few quotes from other experts in marine coral minerals:

"Clearing large areas of coral rubble would certainly impact reef ecosystems, not only because coral larvae settle on rubble (which is well-documented), but also because there are countless organisms that inhabit spaces within corals and rubble. Removing coral rubble from areas where the underlying sediment is unsuitable for larval settlement would certainly inhibit new corals from attaching and growing. I can't conceive that this practice would not negatively affect the long-term integrity of most coral reef ecosystems. There are other complexities, such as the removal of coral rubble that would change micro-flow patterns near the underlying substrate, in turn affecting the settling ability of coral larvae."

Michael Dowgiallo, Ph.D.
Coral Reef Program Coordinator
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

"This activity (dredging & vacuuming) can harm the corals and the organisms that live in and on them in two ways: First, the dredging and vacuuming activity lessens and stirs up large amounts of sediment in the water. This sediment smothers and kills corals and other organisms in the ecosystem. An additional adverse effect of stirring up the sediment with dredging and vacuuming activities is that the turbidity of the water prevents light from reaching the corals and the corals need light in order to survive and grow. Secondly, reefs are formed (and grow) by a process of bioaccretion (cementing together) of carbonate particles that have been removed from the living coral by bioerosion. If all the sediment that has accumulated around a reef (especially that which has already begun to solidify and hence does not risk smothering the reef) is scraped away, the reef loses its capacity to grow and keep up with the sea-level rise. Failure to grow and keep pace with sea-level rise would mean the demise of the reef because the corals need light and thus must be near the surface in order to live."

Marjorie L. Reaka-Kudla, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Biology
The University of Maryland

"I would have an extremely hard time believing anyone who suggests that this activity (dredging and vacuuming) would be benign. Dead corals may act as a substrate for new colonizers, so vacuuming up even dead corals or coral fragments might hinder the ability of reefs to recover in the future. Even if dredging/vacuuming is occurring where there are no (or few) corals, there are certainly other organisms being directly affected, such as sea whips and anemones, many of which also provide structure to benthic habitats and thus provide essential ecosystem functions (such as hiding places for juvenile fish and substrate for various life stages of benthic invertebrates)."

Clark Field, Ph.D.
School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences

Coral Complex is a fossilized stony coral mineral complex with vitamin D & C, Betaine hydrochloric acid and Malic acid. Nothing has been added to fortify this product.

There should be no question as to the difference between marine coral and fossilized stony coral. For those that want additional information, I suggest they read my book, "The Miracle Elements: Fossilized Stony Coral Minerals."