Dear Tom:

I am really sorry that I have no acceptable "proof."  I would only mention
that here we have 7 miles of uninterrupted beach with no source of
pollution.  If all the collectors who ever walked the beach had each picked
up a dozen Donax the population would not have been damaged.  In the "old
days" we had more surf fishing than we do now (practically none) and the
fishermen were the only ones who ever collected the Emerita (for bait) but
the Emerita are not here anymore.  Granted, there are few sub-tidal shells
to be found on our beach at any time as it has too little slope for them to
wash up from wave action; what Abbott once referred to as the "barren
Carolina beaches."

Am really sorry I cannot supply you with "DNA" evidence or a "smoking gun"
but I would wager everything I have that it was the renourishment projects
that have almost completely destroyed our intertidal fauna.

Maybe your New Mexico beaches are different.

dick

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