Dear Dan,
 
The problem is that a fair proportion of the subscribers to Conch-L
are not, in fact, shell collectors but, rather, shell purchasers.
They apparently buy shells as an investment as other people purchase
Krugerrands.  To them, an essential aspect (perhaps the essential
aspect) of a species is its price.  How often have we seen the
"rareness" of some species measured by its price?  If the price
drops over the years this is taken as evidence that the thing is not
really rare, not endangered, etc.  These people are able to spout off
entire price histories and do so frequently as if they were
providing useful information.  The fact that dealers are selling rare
species (by the thousands!) does not bother them at all, though it is
a fair supposition that a lot of these were collected and exported
illegally from their country of origin.  I don't see any concern
about the the honesty of dealers except that they not cheat their
customers.  No one seems to worry about whether the original
acquisition of the specimens was accomplished honestly and decently.
There is not a great deal of difference between this sort of "shell
collecting" and buying unusual spotted cat skins.
 
I don't object to people buying specimens for their collections if
they have some kind of conscience about what they're doing.   I
don't buy specimens myself, not because I object to the practice in
principle, but simply because I wouldn't take any pleasure in a
specimen I hadn't found by my own initiative.  I am happy to say
that I am the possessor of some of the crappiest and most beach-worn
specimens in all of Conch-L.  But they're my specimens; I found them;
and in many cases for the first time in Ecuador.
 
kate
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Howard L. Clark or Kate Clark /
[log in to unmask]  /
tel. (593-2) 224897 or 541215 /
cellular tel. (593-9) 496593  /
P.O. Box 17-12-379, Quito, Ecuador
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