Re: NANFA-- Bluenose shiner news

Bruce Stallsmith (fundulus_at_hotmail.com)
Sat, 13 Sep 2003 18:49:18 -0400

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Mark, you hit it on the head by mentioning "actual data that can actually be
interpreted to indicate that the species is actually in decline." That's
what Of Special Concern is all about as a category, just a snappy way of
saying that we don't really know a species' status but it could be bad. And
BG's point about state agencies being ridiculously underfunded is also true.
So how do we know what to do, and how to do it? I think we can take it for
granted that many populations of many species will be stressed by expanding
human population and human land use. People on this list, and in NANFA, care
about this kind of potential problem and we're trying to contribute
something with our Conservation Research Grant.

We still don't know a lot about local aquatic environments. Does that mean
we shouldn't form opinions on the best available data and try to act
sensibly on these opinions? Part of NANFA's mission statement is that we
want to be advocates for indigenous species and systems. We're not the
hammer of the gods but we can at least discourage wholesale collecting of
(probably) vulnerable species and populations.

In the immediate situation, all we're bouncing off of are rumors of a
foreign aquarist collecting and shipping out bunches of welaka, or some
ichthyologist, or maybe Osama bin Laden, who knows. It could happen,
somehow, like this rumor. Personally I think that habitat alteration is a
larger threat. But things can change quickly from a lot of different inputs.

--Bruce Stallsmith
Huntsville, AL, US of A

>From: Mark <nanfa_at_jonahsaquarium.com>
>Reply-To: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
>To: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
>Subject: Re: NANFA-- Bluenose shiner news
>Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2003 14:17:33 -0400
>
>I won't take a position for or against a moratorium. But so far, this
>whole discussion has been generated by a single comment from a museum
>employee to a hobbyist. No one is going to take any of this very seriously
>unless there is some actual data that can actually be interpreted to
>indicate that the species is actually in decline.
>
>And let's not start accusing people of things. That's how one finds
>oneself on a court docket and shelling out bucks to support the legal
>profession.
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