Some interesting points have been raised in this discussion. I think we
all agree it depends on the motivation. The person collecting for the
right reasons is not going to do anything damaging. The person with the
fish, and by that I mean the wild populations, will head rules and be
conservation minded.
BUT, there are always bad guys in any crowd. The obsesive collector or the
greedy and or stupid pet store proprietor. It is our job as NANFA to
educate these people...if not turn them in to the Environmental Police...as
I have done in the past!
This all reminds me of the time some friends and myself climbed Cadilac
Mountain in Maine. It was a good climb, but then at the top was the store
and parking lot and all the lazy people who drove up. It was very
dissapointing. But I realized later that the number of people who drive up
there is far greater that the number that climb. And those hords of lazy
people may, in the future, be more willing to protect a wild place that
they'll never go to because they drove up Cadilac Mountain.
I think you can draw parralels to collected fish.
Brian
P.S. Be carefull. This sort of intelectual, thought provocing discussion is
lothed by some on this list!
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