I really feel the commercial shell trade has far more to do with the
>devastation of coral reef ecosystems than individual collectors and divers.
 
>
>Jenny
 
Your musings brough to mind a dive trip from many years past. I was in
Florida for a few days, looking for a buddy to dive the east coast
somewhere and was given the name of a diver important in one of the east
Fla, coast shell clubs. Being relatively new to all of this, I thought it
would be good to learn something about collecting. I had snorkled and dived
over several coral reefs and found little, so when this person professed to
"know" how to collect on a reef, I was very interested. We arranged for a
drift dive off West Palm Beach. That was a new experience for me, and I
rather enjoyed the "drifting" part! My instruction on shelling began on the
dive boat when my companion handed me a dive knife as long as my leg and
told me this was key to his method. I was a bit shocked, and since the
darned thing weighed a ton, and would have stuck out the bottom of my boot,
I elected to take along my more reasonable sized knife instead. Underwater,
I saw how the "method" operated. My "buddy took off and I never saw him
again underwater except for the trail of uprooted and overturned coral
heads he left behind. They were all smallish mushroom-shaped corals, up to
a foot-plus across. The shells were on the underside, slipping into small
crevices between the coral head and the substrate. I was appalled. I must
confess that like the child trying to hold back the tide with a spoon, my
first reaction was to turn back the damaged corals until I realized the
futility of that action. The next good storm would just sweep them away.
This went against EVERY thing I had been taught as both a sheller and a
diver. This person continued as a respected member of the Florida shelling
community for many years, but he utterly lost my respect that day. His
reward for all of that destruction was two small Conus mindanus, a couple
Bursa granularis, and a small scallop. Such a deal!