- Messages
- 16,408
- Reaction score
- 5,219
- # of dives
- 1000 - 2499
OK. It's all been said. Nobody wants to take anything LIVE from anywhere. Wow, what a can of worms nobody wants. So, I got into diving 5 years ago because I got frustrated adding shells to my collection beach combing and snorkelling for 40 years.
I don't take thousands to sell, or catch them in my fish nets as "bycatch". One or 2, 3 or 4. Nobody CARES up North, so it's whatever I want to take--and some of the North Atlantic shells are "beautiful in their own right". So, after 40 years of NOT diving I want to take ONE Triton Trumpet and get SCOLDED because they are predators of the Crown of Thorns, which kill reefs. The Triton Trumpets themselves are somewhat endangered as well due to "overcollecting" (by shell shops?) because they are so beautiful. So, people fish Queen Conch over the last 40 years to near extinction because folks like to eat "conch fritters". And I can be fined a million bucks fo taking ONE for my collection. My collection is somewhat scientific, as the shells are positioned according to habitat, and scientific names are available to look up.
So maybe this IS a troll. I'm just so ticked off at almost EVERY diver and charter op who
says "don't ever take anything alive". And I'm going to a rare spot in the Caribbean next month where the country AND dive op permits live shell collecting.
I read dive magazines, the internet, and look at the ads. Divers just don't have any interest in shells. They like fish, sharks, octopi. Who cares about a "conch". Who even knows that "Conch" is a specific TYPE of shell, not just a big thing divers see. There are whelks, cones, cowries, olives, helmets--that are not conchs, and I could get scientific-- such as -- how many divers know ANYTHING about what shells are endangered? Those who do, please reply to me.
Shell Collectors are not destroying the World. Fishing vessels, pesticides and coastal developments (where we go as divers) are. I am a member of Seashell Collector.com
Worldwide Collectors. I want to take one or two. It won't hurt, and I've been waiting 40 years. And if it offends anyone that I plan take live shells on my Caribbean trip, I am happy, because this is the ONE place I've found that allows it. And if I am successfull, I want those folks to know I have taken live shells from the ocean.
I don't take thousands to sell, or catch them in my fish nets as "bycatch". One or 2, 3 or 4. Nobody CARES up North, so it's whatever I want to take--and some of the North Atlantic shells are "beautiful in their own right". So, after 40 years of NOT diving I want to take ONE Triton Trumpet and get SCOLDED because they are predators of the Crown of Thorns, which kill reefs. The Triton Trumpets themselves are somewhat endangered as well due to "overcollecting" (by shell shops?) because they are so beautiful. So, people fish Queen Conch over the last 40 years to near extinction because folks like to eat "conch fritters". And I can be fined a million bucks fo taking ONE for my collection. My collection is somewhat scientific, as the shells are positioned according to habitat, and scientific names are available to look up.
So maybe this IS a troll. I'm just so ticked off at almost EVERY diver and charter op who
says "don't ever take anything alive". And I'm going to a rare spot in the Caribbean next month where the country AND dive op permits live shell collecting.
I read dive magazines, the internet, and look at the ads. Divers just don't have any interest in shells. They like fish, sharks, octopi. Who cares about a "conch". Who even knows that "Conch" is a specific TYPE of shell, not just a big thing divers see. There are whelks, cones, cowries, olives, helmets--that are not conchs, and I could get scientific-- such as -- how many divers know ANYTHING about what shells are endangered? Those who do, please reply to me.
Shell Collectors are not destroying the World. Fishing vessels, pesticides and coastal developments (where we go as divers) are. I am a member of Seashell Collector.com
Worldwide Collectors. I want to take one or two. It won't hurt, and I've been waiting 40 years. And if it offends anyone that I plan take live shells on my Caribbean trip, I am happy, because this is the ONE place I've found that allows it. And if I am successfull, I want those folks to know I have taken live shells from the ocean.