Conservation Biology
Volume 18 Issue 5 Page 1417 - October 2004
doi:10.1111/j.1523-1739.2004.00343.x

Effects of Desertification Caused by Lithophaga lithophaga (Mollusca) Fishery on Littoral Fish Assemblages along Rocky Coasts of Southeastern Italy
Paolo Guidetti, Simonetta Fraschetti, Antonio Terlizzi, and Ferdinando Boero

The environmental destruction caused by illegal harvest of the endolithic bivalve Lithophaga lithophaga disrupts the fish community.  If you have collected endolithic species, you know this requires smashing up a lot of rock.  Collecting them on a commercial scale severely damages the hardbottom habitat, in this case especially affecting the epifaunal algae and the many fish that depend on it, for habitat or for food.

    Dr. David Campbell
    Old Seashells
    University of Alabama
    Biodiversity & Systematics
    Dept. Biological Sciences
    Box 870345
    Tuscaloosa, AL  35487-0345 USA
    [log in to unmask]

That is Uncle Joe, taken in the masonic regalia of a Grand Exalted Periwinkle of the Mystic Order of Whelks-P.G. Wodehouse, Romance at Droitgate Spa

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