Right on Don. All of us that have a passion for the endeavor of shell
collecting, be it scientist or amateur, have a particular interest in
keeping the environment where these animals live as un- impacted as
possible. I'm reasonably certain that serious collectors act responsibly and
do minimal damage compared to the knowledge gained. It is aggravating when
radical and probably well meaning environmentalists condemn us for taking a
live specimen when they haven't a clue or first  hand knowledge of what the
natural world really is. The collecting of that specimen and the information
shared about its habitat with other collectors goes along way to finding
answers to habitat destruction.
----- Original Message -----
From: Don Barclay <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, April 21, 2000 4:20 PM
Subject: Re: Images and pictures...


> Dear Masashi,
>
> Thank you very much for the informative post.  You illustrate very
> well what I was suggesting, that it is the harvesting of molluscs
> for food or commercial purposes--on a large scale--that cause
> the populations to be stressed, and not scientific collecting.
>
> Cheers,
>
>
> Don
>
> ----------
> > From: Masashi Yamaguchi <[log in to unmask]>
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: Images and pictures...
> > Date: Saturday, April 22, 2000 1:15 AM
> >
> > Dear Frank,
> >
> > Marine molluscan resources on Okinawa have been subjected to intensive
exploitation or
> over-harvesting
> > after you were enjoying reef walks at low tides only a couple of decades
ago. When the
> locals collected
> > shells for home consumption during low tide periods, these molluscan
populations had
> plenty time for
> > restocking by themselves. Things are all different now, because
professional fishers
> use diving gears and
> > other advanced means of exploitation such as an underwater torch (that
can make the
> whole sea bottoms
> > visible around the divers for easy catch of nocturnally active species).
Once the
> brood-stocks were decimated
> > it is very hard for reef dwellers to come back. There have been
government-funded
> projects to restock these
> > molluscs (giant clams, green snail and trochus), but it takes a long
looong time to get
> them increased and
> > to be self-propagating. The small giant clam (T. crocea) restocking
project was
> initiated in the early 1970s
> > and juveniles produced in the government hatcheries have been planted on
the reefs in
> many hundred of
> > thousands so far, but the recovery is very slow. The trochus project
followed and
> juvenile releases have
> > been underway but we must wait for several years to see the results, as
they grow to
> maturity very slowly.
> > The green snail project is the most recent since its life cycle was not
known until the
> late 1980s. Juvenile
> > mass-production has been established for this snail and releasing
methods are under
> investigation.
> > It is so easy to destroy molluscan stocks of commercial value but very
hard to restore
> after destruction.
> >
> > Masashi Yamaguchi
> > Univ. of the Ryukyus,
> > on Okinawa