I think the crux of what Marcus was saying was that
limited collecting in any marine environment probably
doesn't hurt anything.  The molluscs, fish, and all the
other creatures live and die, and it's not particularly
material whether they all get ground apart by the sand
or end up in some sheller's cabinet.  Something as
ridiculous as a country-wide ban on taking live shells
of any sort certainly didn't come about as a result of
environmental enlightenment on the part of politicians--
those type things only happen when there is an econ-
omic advantage to such laws.  You probably know
very well that the locals don't bother to know, or follow,
the laws regarding fishing in the reserve, and you also
know that the authorities don't enforce the laws on
them.  That's because the laws weren't aimed at them,
they were aimed at you...and me, and any research
institute that will pay the fees to conduct research there,
or any other person that will shell out the funds in order
to gain "legal" access.  Perhaps I'm a cynic also, but
I'm not ignorant of what goes on, nor naive enough to
suggest that all the locals who struggle to survive there
should be branded as criminals simply because they
use the resources that surround them.

Cheers,


Don

----- Original Message -----
From: "Howard L. Clark or Kate Clark" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, November 15, 2006 11:08 PM
Subject: Re: Galapagos shells and shelling


> Marcus,
>
> This is a fascinating rationalization and I find it pretty
> cynical.
>
> As I understand it, without troubling to investigate
> relevant Ecuadorian laws or, worse yet, having
> investigated the law and having decided not to assume
> any personal risk, you purchased shells from
> Ecuadorian fishermen.  Although the shells came from
> Galapagos (known worldwide to be a marine reserve)
> you accepted them without question.  Nevertheless, you
> say that you do not "encourage any of [your] suppliers
> to go to parks or natural reserves to break laws."  Later,
> you "helped [the  fishermen] to buy engines to their
> boats, fix car problems, and much more than the local
> Government are willing to do,"  thereby making it easier
> for them to continue breaking the law in your behalf.
> You feel that you are justified because 1)  the fishermen
> are poor [though in Ecuador, anyone who has a car,
> boat, and/or outboard motor cannot be counted among
> the very poor] and 2) because you "always stand up for
> our rights of collecting shells whenever [you] can."
>
> In short, you do not consider yourself obliged to respect
> local law or to respect internationally recognized marine
> reserves if you can see an opportunity to take
> advantage of the weak enforcement capacity of the local
> government and profit from it.  If, as you claim you are
> "in favor of selective shelling as it is made in Australia -
> only those having permits are allowed to collect shells,"
> then I think that you should see to it that your
> "suppliers" have legitimate, up-to-date collecting and
> export permits.  These permits are required to collect
> anywhere in Ecuador, not just in Galapagos.
>
> "Regarding Galapagos, the Government has a plan to
> remove all families from those islands - so even the few
> shells which became available will disappear from the
> market."  This is, quite simply, hogwash.  The
> Ecuadorian government has no such plan; what it has
> done is to restrict further migration to the islands in
> order to preserve, as well as it can, the unique
> terrestrial and marine flora and fauna of the National
> Park and Marine Reserve.
>
>
>
> --
> Este mensaje ha sido analizado por MailScanner
> en busca de virus y otros contenidos peligrosos,
> y se considera que está limpio.
>
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