Re: NANFA-- Collecting ethics

coelacanth_at_btinternet.com
Wed, 14 Jan 2004 12:02:14 +0000 (GMT)

>I have seen "professional" zoological keeper buy hundreds of >thousands of dollars of fish specimens to keep huge display
>tanks stocked because they were unable to or too hurried to >keep proper water conditions.
I have also seen this, but if the situation is looked at carefully it can be seen that what is occurring is usually a dedicated curatorial team struggling to deal with p*sspoor LSS systems and other resources put in place by poor quality contractors brought in by incompetent managers, dictated to by soulless accountants more interested in the needs of their greedy shareholders.
What is at fault, the curatorial team or an attitude that resists any attempt by any form of government to stop business doing as it pleases? This of course only applies to the commercial institutions, the facilities financed in other ways have their own problems.

>I hate this holier than thou attitude that some "professionals" >have about hobbiests.
So do I, and I try constantly to get across the fact that there is a huge wealth of knowledge in the aquarist community, but getting stirred up about it is not the way to get the message across. I've lost my temper in the past over people from institutions debating husbandry issues that have long since been resolved by the private aquarist community. It doesn't work, so the information has to be presented differently, otherwise no-one moves forward.
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