I also read the article in the newspaper that is referred to in this thread, and I directly emailed Susan, expressing my dismay that the continued knee-jerk reaction of a few people get big coverage, and therefore big attention.  I have travelled in the Indo-Pacific and South Pacific on collecting trips, and I have to say that I have found that our group, as well as others that I know travel together, is responsible and careful about collecting and habitat protection.  I happen to know first hand that a tremendous amount of "amateur" research has resulted from those trips.  What would happen to malacology research without the opportunities for "amateurs" to collect and compare and study and examine?  Real science results from interest and curiosity born in childhood and early adulthood; stymie that, in any scientific following, and you stall discovery.

And all of that is quite beside the love of the beauty and awe at nature's creation!

Debbie Duval

Debbie Duval

Deborah B. Duval
Family Service Center
Nicholls State University
P. O. Box 2131
Thibodaux, La.  70310

>>> Keith Zeilinger <[log in to unmask]> 8/20/2010 8:14 PM >>>
I did read the article in the Honolulu newspaper that Fabio refers to
with some apprehension.  I have been SCUBA diving and shell collecting
here in Hawaii for 37 years and I have seen( and sometimes collected)
Cypraea tigris on many occasions.  If you study a map of the Hawaiian
Islands you discover that only a small percentage of the coastline is
accessible to shell collectors and SCUBA divers.  There are hundreds of
miles of coastline and thousands of square miles of underwater habitat
(20 to 100 feet in depth) that are not accessible to SCUBA divers
because of rough water and distance from boat harbors.  Windward Oahu
has produced  the largest specimens and also some of the smallest
specimens that I have found.  Indeed the coastline that the writer
refers to is extremely difficult to access by boat outside the reef for
SCUBA diving and I have only been there a few times even though it is on
my side of the island.  And yes I have collected Cypraea tigris outside
that reef.  Aloha, Keith Zeilinger

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