Dear Russ,

We agree and I think dealers are responsable, even more than collectors.

But bear in mind that most dealers live far away from the reefs and
they do not have the knowledge of what is happening. Few people for
example know that in the Philippines, the biggest producer of
specimen shells, the major part of specimen are collected by tangle
netting which is an "extraction" technique with very little harm to
the bottom.   All Conus gloriamaris come from a mere 1 square
kilometer, and this place produces today as much as in 1976 !

Not for Russ, for all of us:
So far, a few further notes on ecology - i agree we should act with
consideration, but let us know our place :

I frankly think that mails on how collectors "destroy" reefs or
habitats is out of place here and makes the whole action of
collecting natural history vulnerable.

Collectors are on place 10001 when it comes to destruction. i am very
sure that anchors of boats destroy hundreds of times more coral reefs
in one day than 250 years of shell collecting did.
Even in the Philippines the harvest of just Pecten pallium and Pecten
radula (for food- who can blame them - they are truly poor on
offshore Islands) destroys reefs a thousandfold compared to all shell
collectors together. Elsewhere, fishing fleets, coastal towns and
industries will do the rest.

Do not forget our place: we are the fly on the elephant, the whole
shell market means nothing in the process of destruction of the
planet. Moneywise, the yearly turnover of the shell market matches a
single big fishingboat. And there are thousands of big fishing boats.
I can go on for half a book. But how to open the eyes of fake
ecologists who keep them closed.

Collectors and museums and researchers (now they are attacking the
Conotoxin-people !?)
ARE NOT THE TARGET IF ONE WANTS TO CHANGE THINGS
   so let's forget about it.


Best regards, Guido
>

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