Re: NANFA-- A forward

Bruce Stallsmith (fundulus_at_hotmail.com)
Wed, 31 Mar 2004 11:42:33 -0500

I take your point on unintended consequences. Heroin and cocaine are
illegal, and that doesn't seem to make a really big difference in those
black markets even with huge enforcement budgets. To get back to fish, there
has been a real problem in this country, especially in the deep South, with
exotics releases to the point that ecosystems have been profoundly altered.
Realistically no law could have stopped various cichlids and catfishes from
being released in Florida although holding someone liable seems to be a good
idea.

The orangethroat darter example might not be a good one when talking about a
federal law. It would seem that it's aiming to prevent the importation and
culturing of exotic species, rather than dealing with native species
obviously already here. It's true that many enforcement agents wouldn't know
a Plecostomus from a darter, but that wouldn't seem to be the focus of
federal action. On the realpolitik side, the USFWS is already hugely
underfunded as are the Parks Service and Forest Service. I couldn't imagine
them being a threat to internal fish trade even if they really wanted to be.

--Bruce Stallsmith
Huntsville, AL, US of A

>From: "R. W. Wolff" <choupiqu_at_wctc.net>
>Reply-To: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
>To: <nanfa_at_aquaria.net>
>Subject: Re: NANFA-- A forward
>Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 08:54:57 -0600
>
>I wasn't referring to this part as the part that could affect the aquarium
>hobby. I thought this a good illustraion of how blanket laws to stop
>something that is causing trouble like big head carp could be used against
>say catching orange throat darters in Missouri driving them out of state,
>or
>having someone there catch them and ship them to your state. Of course it
>doesn't sound like it would be trouble for someone who lived in MO to
>collect some orange throats and bring them home.
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