Overcollecting? It was never proved that collecting has ever made any
seashell extinct. Overfishing, Pollution, and Man predation for food in the
reefs may have an impact thousands times larger.I remember several years ago
I was in a trip in an island off Venezuela and the guide has forbbiden any
shell collecting because of pr eservation of species but when walking around
the island we found tons of oysters openned by local fishermen looking for
pearls, because they need to survive this was allowed by
authorities( ! )Australian authorities also control shell collecting but
made some mammals extint because of "wise measures" and everyone knows what
happened with hawaian snails. Collectors are often victims of fundamentalism
of authorities but some of these close their eyes when fishermen use bombs
or poison to catch fish.

Every collector has the moral right to get better specimens for his
collection

Bernardino
----- Original Message -----
From: Andrew Grebneff <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, December 14, 2002 11:04 AM
Subject: Re: R: filed lip


> >What a lot of rubbish this filed lip nonsense, if the specimen is new to
> >your collection great. to get perfect specimens means overcollecting and
> >possible elimination of the species, is this what you want? for goodness
> >sake lets get to reality and be thankful if you can get a specimen for
your
> >collections which you do not have.
> >
> >Kev
>
> How about a nice Spondylus with filed margins...
>
> I would much rather my specimens have chips than filed lips. Period.
> Even a "lip" which is 100% chip. I note that some dealers who claim
> to not sell filed shells in fact do sell such...
> --
> Andrew Grebneff
> 165 Evans St, Dunedin 9001, New Zealand
> <[log in to unmask]>
> Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut