Dear Marien and all

Sorry, but I think you what I meant; I fully agree with what you said
above, as well as with what Dennis and others have expressed in this
thread. I was just asking if there were any documented cases of marine
mollusks becoming extinct (to which Jim Carlton responded with his
examples). I did not mean to suggest a ban on collecting by shell
collectors. There are probably a few greedy collectors that can cause
some local damage, especially in very restricted populations, but as
several people pointed out, other human activities such as industrial
fishing, large-scale dredging, pollution, habitat loss, introduction
of invasive species, and deepsea oil drilling, to name a few, have a
much greater impact than shell collectors.

If you search the Conch-L archive, you will find older posts in which
I was concerned about increased regulations and the decline of
popularity of shell clubs. I am a professional malacologist, but my
research depends in part on shell collectors, who have been generous
often lending me material for study. I am a board member of
Conchologists of America, and an active member in local shell clubs. I
do think we all should be concerned with the environment and collect
responsibly, following simple rules like the Sheller's Creed, not
collecting more than you need, returning some back to their habitat,
returning upturned rocks to their original position, not collecting
females on eggs, etc., but I do not think banning all shelling is the
solution.

Fabio M.

-------------------------------------------------
Fabio Moretzsohn, Ph.D.
Assistant Research Scientist
Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi
6300 Ocean Drive, Unit 5869, Corpus Christi, TX 78412-5869
Phone: (361) 825-3230; Fax: (361) 825-2050
mollusca [at] gmail.com
Please consider the environment before printing this email.  Think Green!

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