My 2 cents.  Marlo writes....
 
>Date:    Thu, 3 Dec 1998 19:10:14 -0800
>From:    Marlo Krisberg <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: Back to the Conservation Issue
>
>Come on guys and gals.  "Scientific collecting?"  Who are you fooling?
>Take away the beauty, the shell shows, pretty displays for your home,
>amassing large collections to show off, the social aspects of
>involvement with others of similar interest,  etc. and how many would
>still be involved in the hobby?  If you were restricted to collecting
>only for scientific study and had to prove it to obtain collecting
>permits, how many would still be at it?  Explain to me the collectors'
>fetish for the "biggest," the "most perfect," the "rarest."  Is it less
>beautiful if it's only an "F," or only medium sized?  I'm not putting it
>down.  But at least be honest.  True scientific collectors and amateur
>field workers sponsored by them might have to go through a bit of a
>hassle for permits, but they will not be stopped by collecting bans.
 
Do you reall yhtink that scientific collectors don't appreciate the beauty,
meetings (in lieu of shell shows) and other social aspects of involvement
on Malacology/Conchology?  We are not separate from the rest of the world
when it comes to appreciating the beauty of mollusks.  In fact that is why
most scientists study the groups that they do.  They are totally consumed
with a group of organisim and want to learn as much about and collect as
many species etc. as amateur collectors do.  I'm not sure that size really
matters, although I've been told by some that it does.
 
>Come on some of you museum and university guys, tell me I'm wrong.  Your
>problem is not being prohibited from collecting, rather it is the
>inability to get enough interested field workers from the ranks of
>"collectors" to actually collect scientifically helpful material in a
>rigorously structured and targeted, long term program regardless of the
>target specie's utility for personal display.
 
Not true at all.  It is getting to be a real pain in the rear to obtain
permits and explain exactly where you are going, when you are going, how
many you want to collect, who you will be with, where the specimens will
end up, etc. etc. etc.  It's getting to the point where I don't want to
recommend the listing of certain taxa as threatened or endangered because
all it does is make my life a living hell to try to work on them after they
are listed.  And it seems that it is those states with the most
restrictions that don't know didley about their own resource or its status
(at least in the freshwater realm).  They have you deposit material in
collections that don't even have a curator for cryin' out loud.  Here in my
state I have a friend who is probably the best botanist and natural
historian this state has ever seen.  Nowthat he has retired he has seen the
light  (so to speak) and is very interested in mollusks.  But holy cow, the
hoops he has to go through to collect specimens and retain them for his
private collection.  These are shells of species that have been extinct for
over 100 years!  It is absurd.  I can get enough "interested field workers
from the ranks of "collectors" to actually collect scientifically helpful
material" but I can't seem to get the bureaucrats to let them gather useful
data.
 
>And, yes, a ban only on collectors would be unjust
>and without foundation in the context of the losses resulting from
>natural causes and human development.  But that's an unfair context and
>the reverse application of circumstances.  It is precisely because these
>realistically unstoppable devastations occur that collecting
>concentrated on remaining populations and habitats may have devastating
>impacts over time.  The collecting may be small in comparison over a
>short period, but it never stops.  It is a constant pressure that will
>become more and more concentrated on fewer and fewer areas.
 
I can't comment on the percieved impacts of over collecting in marine or
terrestrial habitats, but I do believe that it can impact some (not all)
freshwater species or populations.  But let them collect shells!   I do
know why bureaucrats restrict or ban collecting.  It's because it is one of
the only things they can control without doing any real hard work or
putting their necks on the line to stop a project that may really have an
impact on the environment.
 
Whoa, that was a long fall off my soapbox.
 
Kevin
 
Kevin S. Cummings
Illinois Natural History Survey
607 E. Peabody Drive
Champaign, IL 61820
[log in to unmask]
http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/cbd/collections/mollusk.html