Two types of threats have been identified:

1) Wild-Harvesting of Live Rock removes vital habitat in and around coral reefs. This practice may threat many coral reef species. Remember that only a small fraction of a coral reef is living coral... therefore coral reefs are in fact "live rock reefs". Harvesting wild Live Rock removes vital habitat structure.

Note that this environmental threat only applies to wind-harvested live rock. Ocean-aquacultured Live Rock is also harvested from the ocean but it does not damages natural reefs.

2) All Live Rock poses the threat of introducing invasive species. DO NOT DISPOSE LIVE ROCK IN THE OCEAN OR OTHER WILD ENVIRONMENTS. When aquarium species (on or inside Live Rock) are introduced to natural environments, they have the potential to become established, out-compete local species and become invasive (spread uncontrollably), potentially causing severe ecological disasters