Conch-lers,

Prior to last year's decision by the City of Fort Myers Beach (Lee County,
FL) to pass a live-shelling ban in their area, I was informally interviewed
over the phone by someone who identified herself a FMB city officer. She
was interested in my opinion about the effectiveness of the
soon-to-be-approved ban. I explained that, although it is somehow
disappointing to see the occasional tourist carrying buckets of live sand
dollars from the beach (which will soon be dumped from the car window once
they realize the things were alive and are now stinking), common sense
tells me that the impact of such live-collecting should be minimal when
compared to the possible problems resulting from agriculture (via
agricultural runoff) and coastal development (which causes habitat
destruction). However, given that these are two of the largest sources of
revenue in the State of Florida, it is easy for the ones involved to
casually dismiss agriculture and development as culprits in the loss of
environmental quality and biodiversity. I had not heard of the proposed
live-shelling ban in Lee County until Karlynn Morgan's message earlier today.

Best,

José
__________________________________________________________________________
José H. Leal, Ph.D., Director
The Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum
Editor, The Nautilus
www.shellmuseum.org

3075 Sanibel-Captiva Road
Sanibel, FL 33957 USA
(941)395-2233
fax (941)395-6706