Re: NANFA-- Columbia trip gear (hellbenders plus!)

archimedes_at_bayspringstel.net
Thu, 8 Jan 2004 22:42:07 -0500

Quoting Bruce Stallsmith <fundulus_at_hotmail.com>:

I understand erring on the side of caution - I really do. But nowadays everbody
is raising all kinds of alarms with nothing to back it up, or else they produce
junk "science" to justify their claims. I have not seen any credible evidence
that NA naturalists are contibuting to the decline of any NA animal by
"collecting" them. I still believe that if this were a _legitimate_ concern,
then the majority of professional zoologists would consider it a point of honor
never to harvest wild animals for their own various studies of imperiled species.

This is simply another version of the points I debated in A/C with Gene Helfman,
and I have yet to see an effective counterargument. I was kind of hoping
somebody would take a stab at it :-) If one can avoid protraying me as a
whining, rationalizing idiot, that is.

> The harm is imperfect knowledge that they may be common, the other side of
> the coin. We all know things change quickly in many areas, and this is a
> species with very specific habitat needs. Today's G4-G5 in many areas may be
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