Jenny you wrote:
The ultimate goal would be to convince enough dealers not to purchase
wholesale shells to send a message that destructive practices do not pay --
at least not in the specimen shell market.  It would take more than a few
of us to achieve this, but what an impact we could make!
 
This would work but only in a perfect world. Dealers can't dictate orders
to their suppliers. These dealers have spent years and countless hours
nurturing the relationship with those who sell to them. Maybe what we need
is some suppliers seeing extra profit to be made by only brokering shells
that have been obtained in a environmentally friendly way. This would be
much like when you go to the market to buy tuna fish and you look for the
brands that are "dolphin friendly". We know that the perfect shell we
purchase was brought in with twenty others that should have been left for
breeding stock. Odds are that the "mollusk friendly" concept will not be
implemented and most likely the who problem will be addressed by a tree
hugger who will campaign for live shell ban world wide. I could see it now,
you creep from shadow to shadow until you find "Danny". He's the one
standing on the street corner selling cowries and cockles in a baggy.
"Pissst, you looking for guttata, got only one but it's the
best""....Something to think about while you are enjoying your coffee. Mjb