Usually, Animals have two way to make it sure that they can keep their gene out of the danger of extinct. one way is to product as more as possible baby animals (Usually, just eggs), such as mollusca, if one of them survived, then , the species survived. the other way is to feed and protect they babies carefully, such as birds, tigers. For the first way, species collecting will not endanger the species, the only way to endanger the species is to destroy the enviroment in which the animals live. but the law makers don't think so. This summer, i went to Yellow Sea in Shandong Province, China, to collect some intertidal species, but i found most of coast was forbidden for collectors, but opened for house builders....... I went to Hainan provice for land snails, i found the forest is forbidden for collectors, but open for log makers.... It is more easy to make a law to forbid collectors than make a law for other people He Jing [log in to unmask] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [log in to unmask] - a forum for informal discussions on molluscs To leave this list, click on the following web link: http://listserv.uga.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=conch-l&A=1 Type your email address and name in the appropriate box and click leave the list. ----------------------------------------------------------------------