I think Andy's on to something in terms of the psychology of the
anti-collecting trend. It's possible that people generally perceive
shells as being more substantial and permanent than, say, fish, and
therefore it's akin to property theft to remove them. I remember one
dive instructor telling the class, "Anything on the bottom is real
estate. Don't touch it."

One analogy might be the public's reverence for sculpture vs paintings.
Not to say, there's none toward the latter; but it's different.

No discussion of the anti-collecting trend would be complete without
some mention of the general ban on collecting shells by dive
operators--at least that's been true in my experience in Thailand and
Marshall Islands. (No problem in Pohnpei).

David Kirsh

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