- Joined
- Dec 20, 2009
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Mammoth ivory looks very white in photographs, It's a photography thing. If you put elephant next to it the camera would automatically pick it as the lightest color and assign it the lightest value. It also has to do with length of exposure.
You are right, they can't make a decision on visual, but they can use common sense. If elephant ivory is selling for a $1,000.00 a pound in China, no one is going to smuggle it into the US for one tenth of that. Despite all we've heard, there was never a huge problem of illicit elephant ivory coming into the US. Out of 98 countries studied, the US ranked the lowest for illicit ivory smuggling and the highest in illicit ivory prevention, according to multiple studies by CITES.
You are right, they can't make a decision on visual, but they can use common sense. If elephant ivory is selling for a $1,000.00 a pound in China, no one is going to smuggle it into the US for one tenth of that. Despite all we've heard, there was never a huge problem of illicit elephant ivory coming into the US. Out of 98 countries studied, the US ranked the lowest for illicit ivory smuggling and the highest in illicit ivory prevention, according to multiple studies by CITES.