Re: NANFA-- dwarf sturgeon / captive breeding / refuguia

Moontanman_at_aol.com
Sat, 21 Dec 2002 09:36:40 EST

In a message dated 12/20/02 10:56:22 PM Eastern Standard Time,
thirdwind_at_att.net writes:

>
> I think it was a good topic for discussion, and I don't think Norm was
> chasticizing you-- I think he was offering an explanation why people
> weren't as excited as you. People are on this list for a number of
reasons,
> and getting involved in something like this probably isn't one of
> them. Over time I've realized this list is like a TV. You can watch
> without feeling the need to get involved :-) Also, lots of people aren't
> aquarists.
>
>
You are of course correct. I hope everyone will accept my heart felt apology.
While I really didn't mean to hurt feelings or get my feeling hurt I
obviously picked a subject fish that was too close to my own emotions and
ended up stabbing myself in the heart. I really only meant to start a
discussion by questioning one of the basic rules we all go by (no release of
exotics for any reason) and there by possibly digging at the roots of our own
rules and find out if they are indeed as inflexible and as important as they
seem. I choose the Poca River In West Virginia because I grew up along it's
banks and my experiences with that river shaped a lot of my ideas about
conservation. I think what caused my loss of objectivity was contacting a
person who is considered to be an expert on Pseudoscaphirhynchus hermanni.
His slant on the fish appalled me. At first I thought his broken English was
causing a translation problem but after I finally came to understand he saw
no point in saving P hermanni because it didn't produce caviar. He could see
no reason to breed this fish because it wasn't economically profitable. He
was amazed to learn that sturgeon were being produced in the USA and I
couldn't seem to get him to see that the dwarf sturgeon might me worth
something beyond caviar. To those of you that occasionally see sturgeon in
petshops (mostly European sterlets) they are a by product of the caviar
industry. Sterlets are really brackish water fish and for the most part
pelagic and do not do well in confinement. Be that as it may, what I meant to
be an intellectual discussion got away from me due to my own love of
sturgeons and the realization that for the most part nothing is being down to
save this most unique of the sturgeons. I did think it was a cheap shot to
imply that my only interest in this fish was to have one in my aquarium. I am
still in contact, if you can call it that, with one of the people who work
with sturgeons from that region and I plan to join the Sturgeon Specialist
Group maybe my efforts will pay off one day. And if I wanted a sturgeon for
my aquariums I would break down and buy some native shovelnose sturgeons,
they are ideal for large aquariums and live well in confinement. I just don't
have any use for several dozen of them at once.

Moon
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