Marlo,

The I-you-me collected it here-there-anywhere where shells are found in nature, discarded on boats, in traps, in the gut of fish [hooked by others] or similar scenarios, is still deemed self-collected IMHO. 

As mentioned, some shell show rules stipulate their own criteria for what they consider a self-collected shell. Those exhibiting in a self-collected category must adhere to the show's category criteria.  There are too many scenarios in which to nail down verifiable self-collected situations and simplifying the definition of "self collected" avoids misunderstandings.

At the first show I co-judged at the Cleveland Shell Show back in the late 1970's there was a kerfuffle over the self collected category after we awarded an exhibit of dredged shells the blue [first place] ribbon. The shells were dredged on one of Jimmy Ernest's dredging trips off Gubernadora Island.  One of the shell show organizers strongly argued that the shells in this display were not self collected by the person exhibiting since she was one of a number of collectors on the boat and claims she did not handle the dredge. He knew because he was also on that trip with her.

The Cleveland Shell Show rules were very vague in defining a self-collected shell. My recollection is that the blue ribbon stuck with this exhibit because, first, the judge's decision was final, and second, she was in the field as part of a group who were collecting shells from their "natural habitat". Everyone on that boat was essentially self-collecting...their tool for collecting was the dredged. Did each one of them have to crank the winch to be considered a self-collector? That may be a yes or no answer for some; or a rhetorical question for others. It was also up to the show organizers to have screened the entires beforehand to make sure an exhibit was entered into an appropriate category.  One can accept or reject such a definition.

If exhibiting, make sure to read the self collected category criteria closely before entering the category. Once a show committee agrees to define this category, the exhibitors and judges then have a solid guideline to which self-collected exhibits are placed no matter how you personally define self-collected or label it in your own collection.



At 01:52 PM 2/18/2024, you wrote:

Hi Rich,

 

Going to get messy.  If picking up a shell on the deck of a boat is “self-collected,” then isn’t picking up a shell discarded in a “dump,” trash heap, or dumpster also “self-collected?”  What about collecting shells off stored crab (other) traps.  Then, there’re those I collected ex pisce.  Did I collect the shell or did the fish?  And, when my dive buddy picks up a shell and gives it to me because I’m the collector, is that self-collected or a gift?  And, if not, what if she points it out to me and I pick it up?  Is it then self-collected?

 

My head hurts. 

 

Marlo

 

From: Conchologists List <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Richard Goldberg
Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2024 12:54 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [CONCH-L] self-collected

 

John,

Simply put, if you are in the field and you find a shell laying on the ground, intertidally or otherwise pick it up, even on the deck of a boat, it is deemed self collected. Two aspects are involved...you (self) and picked it up (collected). 

Yes, when dredging, trawling or trapping shells, you must have been involved in the process that brought the shell to the surface. Not a bystander who reaps the benefits of other's work.

The other factor must be defining the term "in the field". In the field is not a shell shop or otherwise place or environment where the shell has already been picked up, cleaned and processed. Seems obvious.

Others may argue this simplistic explanation, but why over analyize it.

Rich

 

On February 18, 2024 11:31:34 AM CST, John Timmerman < [log in to unmask]> wrote:

I was recently asked for a definition of a self-collected shell(s). At the moment I defined "self-collected" as a specimen recovered directly or indirectly from the environment in which it occurred either by direct picking by hand and or operating or participation in the operation of equipment such a dredge, to bring it into hand.  

 

Purchasing, a gift or trade of shells from another collector or business is not self-collected.

 

In pondering the definition, it appears my definition may be inaccurate. 

 

Examples

 

I have long considered fossils personally collected at commercial strip mines as self-collected. Collecting at such sites sometimes involves removing the fossil directly from undisturbed sediments but more frequently from highly disturbed "spoils" cast aside by the mining operation. Is this truly self-collecting or scavenging off of cast-off "trash?" Collecting such sites is collecting directly in context of where the specimens occurred compared to collecting specimens from the "product" material such as a road elsewhere.

 

If I find a shell in a road where fill was brought in from for example, a commercial sea scallop boat as I once experienced at Ocracoke, North Carolina, is that self-collected or more along the line of scavenging. The exact source location the material was fished was unknown other than concluding it was somewhere in the range of Placopecten magellanica as that was the majority of the shell content.

 

When a beach is renourished, shells and fossils often become available that were not before. Is picking up that material self-collected? I regard picking up shells from an undisturbed beach as self-collected. Is there a difference?  

 

Years ago, I visited a scallop dump and came home with some banded tulips that still hold position of pride in my cabinets. Did I self-collect those shells? They were pretty much ignored by other people. As they came from a trash dump were they not really collected by me but scavenged from collecting someone else did by proxy in that they were after other things and accidentally caught what I found once they threw it away?

 

Some collecting could certainly be considered scavenging.

 

Picking up a dead shell from a beach is scavenging the remains of a formerly living mollusk. The shell is out of context from the original habitat of where the mollusk lived and may have been moved considerable distance from where it lived by ocean currents and wave action. I regard that as self-collected. 

 

These are a few of the musings I have on the definition. All input, opinion is invited and welcome. 

 

John Timmerman

 

 

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