So be advised when walking those beaches out there, if it's
>endangered, even if dead, just pretend it does not exist. Save yourself both
>time and money.
>
>Frank (rain no snow, in Massachusetts)


This sort of kneejerk bureaucracy really bugs me. If the thing's dead, it
only does good to collect it.

We have a similar problem here in New Zealand, where it's illegal to
collect dead Paryphanta and Powelliphanta shells. Now, some of these are on
the verge of extinction, and not many specimens of these particular species
are in ANY collections. Making collection illegal ensures that once they
are extinct, and I cannot really believe that a species restricted to an
acre of scrub will not soon become so, there will be almost no record of
their existence. The shells dry, warp and split into mangled ruin shortly
after death. Surely endangered species' dead shells SHOULD be collected,
rather than left for nature to destroy.

Andrew G