Just out of curiosity...why is it that the COA, the biggest mollusk
oriented organization in the United States, is letting itself be
legislated out of existance? I hear a lot about being blamed for declines
in molluscan populations, but nothing about an active defense? Do we
really want to go the same way as fresh-water mussel collectors and bird
egg collectors?
 
Specimens and data in old collections can be informative and fascinating
but only tells us about the past. These tell us little about the present
state of our environment if we can't get out and take new samples to
study it.
 
We continually sit by and let ourselves and our activities be blamed for
anything and everything. We talk amongst ourselves, get each other all
worked up, pat each other on the back because we all recognize the
problems and, then, let it go.  It reminds me of bitching about being in
a bad marriage, but being too lazy to do anything about it.
 
I get so frustrated with some of the attitudes I encounter, I can hardly
stand it. Mostly it's people who believe that they can go on about their
business...collecting responsibly, or studying their clades, or drawing
their trees, or writing their articles, or dealing their shells...and
hoping someone else take care of defending their (our)
hobby/avocation/profession. When are we going to wake up and pull our
heads out of the sand? There ISN'T anyone else! We're it! And if we don't
start standing up against bad legislation, we might as well start hunting
plastic seashells in our bath tubs!
 
Kim Hutsell
San Diego
 
Bobbi Cordy wrote:
>
> I stated several times that one of the big problems in FL is the
> renourishment of beaches where hundreds of shells and being pumped out
> of the ocean onto the beaches....well here is what was in yesterdays
> paper:
>
> "Panama City Beach - A renourishment project is providing beachcombers
> with a bonanza of shells of all kinds and calibers.
> In addition, dredges are bringing up gun shells expended during military
> training exercises in or over the Gulf of Mexico.
> Beachcombers usually have to wait until low tides after storms to find
> fresh seashells, but the dredging is providing them with relatively
> untouched specimens in the sand being pumped from offshore to restore
> severely eroded beaches.
> The $21.5 million renourishment is about 40percent complete and on
> schedule, said Rafael Castillo, a quality control official with Great
> lakes Dredge and Dock Co. which has been doing the dredging work."
> Florida Today, Tuesday, December 1, 1998.
>
> AND very soon the scientific shell collector will be told it is their
> fault because the shells are gone.  What a crock!!!
>
> --
> Jim and Bobbi Cordy
> of Merritt Island, Florida.
> Specializing in Self-Collected
> Caribbean & Florida Shells