Hi All,
   I must say that at first, Mr. Heil's initial comments had me starting
to reach for the bull horn... or bull shovel. Fortunately, I was too
busy that first night to respond and so had the benefit of hind sight
and the subsequent posts to see how this drama played out. The
discourse has been enlightening and energetic. Initially, I was alarmed
at what I saw on his part as an attempt to make light of a very serious
situation. This was because Mr. Heil's words were poorly chosen and his
thoughts not presented in a concise manner. At least that's the
conclusion I came to after reading his posts that attempted to defend
his first proposition. I accept his amended proposition, that his
complaint isn't with the notion that Red Knot numbers are in serious
decline but that statements made in the scientific paper were taken out
of context and magnified out of proportion for political or monetary
reasons. I'm just not sure he made the argument complete.

   Back in the early 1980's I joined an organization called INFACT. I
don't recall the exact words that went into that acronym but it was
formed to deal with the marketing of infant formula in 3rd world
countries through the use of sales persons dressed as nurses. These
corporate shills would enter villages where the literacy rates may be
under 15% and convince new mothers that breast feeding was unnecessary
and old fashioned. Thousands of newborns then later died when the
mothers of these children (unable to afford the formula when the
initial free supply ran out) tried to give the kids plain water
thinking that because it came from the bottle it had some "magic'
nutrition. INFACT organized a worldwide boycott of the Nestle Company,
a major offender. After several years Nestle amended its sales
practices and signed a consent decree with INFACT. Flush with the heady
aroma of success and having an organization already in place, INFACT
looked around for another windmill to battle. At the time General
Electric was up to its eyeballs in nuclear weapons production. They
made the neutron trigger for every weapon in the US nuclear arsenal.
INFACT organized a worldwide boycott of GE consumer products. They held
press conferences, staged events for the media, etc. GE's sales showed
no sign of decline. They were so much larger than Nestle that their
bottom line didn't even register a blip. Still, when GE saw the hand
writing on the wall near the end of the 80's (an environmental clean up
and the slackening of the arms race) and divested itself of it's
nuclear defense contracts, INFACT claimed victory. This empty self
promotion costs them a great many members and the organization
splintered into several other smaller groups.

   So you're saying, what's this got to do with Red Knots and the
argument at hand ? Making statements that ultimately aren't borne out
by facts can have serious repercussions for future events. And that is
what Mr. Heil now says he was so crudely trying to state. The limits on
horse shoe crab fishing in New Jersey and Delaware are about to expire.
If they're to be extended or, even better, made permanent, the public
and the regulatory agencies have to be assured that the decisions are
based on sound science. Giving those opposed to a horse shoe crab
fishing ban the ammunition to shoot it down by over rating the
scientific evidence risks doing possibly irreversible harm to all shore
bird species, especially the Red Knots.

David Hartgrove
Daytona Beach, FL