Obviously the paving and building has ruined the shelling both in the Keys
and Sanibel!   NOT the few shell collectors!

BC

-----Original Message-----
From: Conchologists List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Matt
Blaine
Sent: Tuesday, December 25, 2007 9:20 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [CONCH-L] a lesson on collecting which may relate to shelling

About 30 years ago we use to rent a small cottage in Dewey Beach, DE, USA
which was about 90 meters from the Atlantic Ocean and about 32 miles from my
home. At home we had a large collection of native plants, orchids, and other
plants in our gardens and green house. We would go home every couple of days
to tend the gardens and check the mail.
In the sand dune yard next to our rented beach cottage was a small colony of
rare dune dwelling plants. I wanted to take one back to my gardens and plant
it where we had a good chance of keeping it alive but I was torn by the
moral dilema of taking such a rare plant (and violating the law) even though
I would be preserving it. I decided not to take the plant (taking the high
road,after all I was a teacher), but was totally mistaken. The next week we
came back to the cottage only to find that the lot where the plants had
existed for years had been bulldozed! Every plant was gone. The rolling dune
leveled. In a few weeks it became an asphalt parking lot and a new condo.
All of the plants were gone.
We have also seen similar things happen in the Florida Keys. We use to dive
around Key West in 1968 before the housing boom covered the keys with houses
and canals. We saw the white silt from diging canals hanging in the water
and eventually covering the animals, plants, and bottom later in the 70s.

Matt

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