Dear Michael and all,

The first Pinna nobilis I saw in my life was an item
'standing' near an anphora in a garden of a housing
scheme in La Manga, Murcia (Spain). Of course, it had
been brought there by divers.

I remember thinking at once: "there must be more
somewhere near here". I looked for Posidonia fields,
and after a couple of days I found one -1.5 m deep. I
could count at least forty items of 'nobilis'. Nearly
half of the population was dead, but remained empty in
their living position.

Three years after that I came back (2000). They had
built four new blocks close to the beach: I could only
observe a couple of living animals; anyhow, the empty
shells where still there, standing like 'living
deads'... (the secret about the sumerged "graveyard"
had been preserved). This gave me the main arguments
for considering pollution the actual reason for their
disappearance.

Nevertheless, I agree with you. If divers had learnt
of the population existence, the situation would have
been even worse. I guess this is because some divers
do not collect, though; they simply spoil.

On the other hand, in case you summed up all the
people in Málaga and Murcia in real want of a Pinna
'nobilis' for a serious collection (not to leave it
'decorating' in the grass, or to show your friends the
'giant mussel' you have fished), the result won't be
much over sixty? seventy? people...

Obviously, in my first mail I was talking about the
little impact exerted by reasonable, sensible
collectors with a deep sense of responsability, as I
think most of us are.

Best regards,

Fali.

Rafael María Puertas Rey.



_______________________________________________________________
Nokia Game ha comenzado
Haz clic y disfruta de la nueva aventura multimedia de Nokia
antes del 3 de noviembre.
http://es.promotions.yahoo.com/info/nokiagame.html