I'm afraid Mr. Poland has got it exactly right, the support for the shelling
bans is not logical, but emotional. There is a feeling that shelling is
"bad". I got dissed by dive operators for "pilfering" after having collected
two hairy tritons, yet when their own people collected conch for salad, that
was just fine.

I suspect many dive operators have to do a bit of a political dance, maybe
it's rationalization so they can sleep nights. In resort areas, their
business consists of bringing people they have only just met out into some
pretty delicate areas. In what the industry describes as a "resort course"
people who have never dived before are allowed to dive. These "students" are
escorted out onto what are usually very pretty reefs (because the tourists
pay big bucks and you want your customers happy) where they are usually
intentionally overweighted (to avoid unscheduled rapid ascents with the
chance of dcs or embollisms) and they go bouncing over the bottom.

On any given dive there are always a few so-called "certified" divers who
seem to be utterly clueless, with zip-o buoyancy control. And then there are
the frantic finners who fan sand and debris all over the reef (Underwater
it's hard to say, HEY YOU, DING DONG, BEND YOUR KNEES AND GET YOUR FEET OFF
THE BOTTOM!).
Sometimes diving in the proximity of one of these eeeeediots is hair raising
enough that you are more worried about the risk to human life than
environment damage.

And oh gosh, in Florida, where they let people spearfish on the dives. I
remember coming out from behind a bulkhead on the Thunderbolt wreck off
Marathon and looking right down the barrel (shaft?) of a spear gun longer
than me. I backed off fast, comforting myself with the thought that
underwater things always look bigger. It was probably only a 4-foot spear.

I'm ranting, but I understand dive operators have got to make a living like
the rest of us and I suspect the underwater ecosystem can handle a few bumps
and bounces. Still, if you are going to make your living bringing bozos into
the briney, don't get all high and mighty about my small bit of shelling.