John and Marlo make good points. A perfect parallel is in populations of
carnivorous plants (like the beautiful three to four foot high pitcher
plants) which were once plentiful from Tallahassee north into Georgia and
west to New Orleans. Thanks to land development (particularly in and around
Mobile Bay, Pensacola and New Orleans), tree farming and agriculture
(namely soy beans) there are now only a handful of locations where these
plants may be found. The Nature Conservancy has been working hard to
protect the remaining stands, but it will never be the same.
 
Once there were truly spectacular mega-acre savannahs covered with an
astounding assortment of gorgeous species. Today, only a few remote
locations support these important plants (after all, carnivorous plants, or
insectivorous plants, which would be more accurate, are - or were - a big
contributor in the control of insect pests like flies, gnats and
mosquitos).
 
Still, amazingly enough, many people point fingers and curse at those who
may dig up some wild populations of pitcher plants or sundews, etc. --
plants that are usually in the path of a bulldozer. In some areas, it is
actually against the law to remove a single plant, though timber companies
are free to destroy millions. Welcome to the start of the next millenium.
 
I recall Dr. Don Schnell mentioning a trip to South America where trees
were being chopped down and burned to make room for farms, yet it was (and
is) against the law for him to remove a single epiphytic orchid from such
trees. All this is the very definition of absurdity. I feel we are
fortunate that given the stress shells, and other plants and animals, have
been subjected to by man that we even have any left. It's a shame that
those that discuss it the most are the ones lest likely to be able to do
anything to stop the destruction of natural habitats. Hey, when is the last
time you personally drained a swamp?
 
Jim Miller,
Tallahassee, Florida
 
 
>John,  It is not infrequently that I recall the collecting trip you took me on
>as a beginning collector in the early 80's to Sarasota Bay.  I remember most of
>all the plentiful whelks and large numbers of small shells in the shallows.  I
>haven't been back since.  Your description below of what has happened broke my
>heart.  It confirms my belief that population pressure and the development that
>goes with it is the principal factor destroying shoreline habitats.  And, this
>is the very reason we shellers should support protective measures and highly
>discipline our collecting of remaining areas to severe limits.  These remaining
>areas will have to serve as the reservoir of living species to repopulate
>devastated areas.   Your advice, which you taught me and which I witnessed you
>practice over and over is sound -- take only numbers that will not harm
>populations and never take any poor quality living specimens.  Don't collect
>just to collect.  Take only what you will make good use of.
>
>Marlo
>Florida
>
>shelloak wrote:
>
>> When I lived in Sarasota, I was only a couple of blocks from the best place
>> on the whole coast to collect Melongena corona.  At this place for years I
>> collected 100's if not more of this specie.  I never hurt the population
>> one bit, as I only took sizes from 3 inches and up, and of these only the
>> best, in turn I left to lay eggs ( which there were always many cases
>> there).  So it is not how many you take, it is how you take them, I thinmk
>> there was only me and another woman that knew of this spot, surely she did
>> not take to many either or there would not be as many as there were every
>> time I went there.  Now 20 years later, since the pass has been closed to
>> build condominums, Not only has this place  no longer shells but the whole
>> bay has mostly been wiped out of shells that were plentiful.  Don't always
>> blame the shell collector when you cannot find shells.  In fact the nice
>> place I went to is now a stinking mess, closing the pass stopped the flow
>> of water and all the bad dumps of sewage in the bay, now has killed almost
>> everything in the bay.  Next time I am there, I will have to see if Busycon
>> aspinosum has survived this mess.  Also in this area were super large
>> Pleuroploca gigantea and Pleuroploca reevei, many Busycon contrarium and
>> lots of Nassa, along with many kinds of Clams, all of this now gone.  So
>> yes, you can take 1000's of any specie out of any area, if you know what
>> you are doing.  In fact when I was there one day ( will not talk about the
>> religon of these people) but they were talking everything that moved.  I
>> had to get in front of them and fill my bucket and dump it in deep water
>> and go back for more to again fill my bucket and do this over and over to
>> keep them from destroying the area.  I was told by them that I should not
>> be taking their shells and putting them where they could not get at them.
>> You can bet on it, "IF" there were a 1000 Cypraea leucodon in Dons' area,
>> he did not get them all, and "IF" they are there at all, since they are a
>> deep water shell, I really doubt if 1000 of them would have come into
>> shallow water for him to collect, but then again, maybe they knew he would
>> be comming and they all came at one time for him to collect.  Sure would be
>> nice if  Arts' Sthenorhytis pernobilis would someday (while I was at the
>> beach) come out of the deep water about 1000 of them so I could have my
>> pick, I likely would get quite a few of them.  Now none of this will ever
>> happen, so if you are collecting shallow water shells, take the best and
>> leave the not so good one, they lay as many eggs as the good ones, and you
>> will always have a good place to get more when you want them, I traded
>> almost all of what I collected, but also I ate the animal of almost all
>> that I collected. even the lowly Cocina makes good soup if you have enough
>> of them, and they are at the beach by the 10s' of 1000s' and I doubt if a
>> collector will ever wipe these out.  Think how many shells are destroyed by
>> the dredgeing for scallops, funny no one has complained about this!  Tons
>> of scallops are taken each year for you to eat, do you think about where
>> all the sea food you eat comes from??  Also I put a net in the water behind
>> my house, and when I cleaned the shells I put the "livers" on the net and
>> had my pick of tasty blue crabs also when they came to eat the left overs.
>> Enough and there is a lot more.  John Bernard