Re: NANFA-- Bluenose shiner news

Todd Crail (farmertodd_at_buckeye-express.com)
Mon, 22 Sep 2003 20:42:31 -0400

To put an exclimation on Jay's point... Once you've removed _any_ animal
from it's habitat, it's basically biologically DEAD. What you do with it
after that can come in many different forms, some with more value, others
with less... "Value" having mostly to do with the amount of information that
comes from that animal's removal. But once it's out of the stream, wether
you're a Federal Agency, a hatchery that contracts with governments to rear
endangered species, or fish enthusiast / home hobbiest... Wether you soak
it in formalin, smash it up into a bunch of assays, or keep it alive and
even breed it in a tank. Until it interacts with it's home population
again, it's dead.

And, I'll add.... I long ago ran out of fingers and toes to count the number
of enthusiastic hobbiest who were "Gonna breed {insert species}!"

As Chris said... I _do_ have enough fingers and toes to count the number of
people who've actually even made a decent attempt at that... Consistently.
;)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jay DeLong" <thirdwind_at_att.net>
To: <nanfa_at_aquaria.net>
>
> Animals aren't like Fords off the assembly line. It's the rare
unexpressed
> genes that hold the keys to survival in response to environmental changes,
> and it's the total amount of genetic information contained within the
> population-- not an individual-- that defines a species. The Aquatic
> Conservation Network (when still around) had guidelines/protocols for
> maintaining genetic diversity in a captive rearing program. Any such
> program would have to start with that. But no program is a remotely close
> substitute for conserving the species in the wild in its natural
> habitat. The health of a species is a reflection on the health of its
> ecosystem. Ecosystem health and species diversity, not how many
> individuals of one single species are there, are what were left us by
> Nature and previous human caretakers (good or bad), and what become our
own
> legacy.
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
/"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily
/ reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes
/ Association"
/ This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association
/ nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word
/ subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to
/ nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to
/ nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead.
/ For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org