Mr. Krisburg has thrown down a gauntlet which probably has been
picked up by others by now (i get the messages as a once-a-day "digest",
so do not know what is going on moment-by-moment!!), but i would like to
get a word in on this topic.  While the majority of collectors (ie,
"amateur" conchologists - those who are involved with shells just for
the love of these often beautiful, and always interesting natural
creations!!) are perhaps less than completely "scientific" in their
collection methods and objectives, there are a good # of collectors
(incl. about 50% of my customers!!) who HAVE, and CONTINUE to make
excellent contributions to the sciences of conchology and malacology, in
at least a half-dozen major ways (intensive collection of a particular
area- beyond what overworked, under-funded scientists can generally
accomplish,  often nearly-fanatical scrutiny of particular faunal
groups, ....no time to list them here, but they are indeed important to
the world of science, even if the work is not always done by those "most
qualified" to do it!!  Further, even many of the
"unscientifically-oriented" collectors amass specimens with good data,
which wind up in museum or institutional collections used by
"accredited" scientists, and with marine collection in particular, the
great majority of collectors of ALL kinds do little damage to the
environment they are collecting from.  The few that do end up doing
harm, should be reprimanded, and more importantly, EDUCATED by the rest
of us.
    "Scientists" and "amateurs" have, do, and should continue to work
together, for the advancement of knowledge, and the protection of the
natural world from the ONLY species capable of destroying it- ie, US!!
(And if some are only or mainly intersted in the beauty of shells, there
is surely a place for them in our world as well!!!).
 
 
Canadian-with-vested-interest on a soap-box,
 
Ross M.