RE: NANFA-- fwd: Snakehead or bowfin?

matt ashton (ashtonmj2003-in-yahoo.com)
Wed, 19 May 2004 11:30:03 -0700 (PDT)

I think the hobby as a whole has an impact that is so minimal it couldnt do much damage to populations in certain cases such as taking fish that are T&E. People just dont have an interest in it like they do going to petsmart to fill up a 10 gallon with colorfol tropicals and thats perfectly fine by me and part of the reason why I love this niche.

This all gets back into the education of it though. Misidentification whether it be by the hobbyist or the LFS is the inherent problem in that possible bad situation. But a well educated responsible, hobbyist/naturalist, more often than not ( lets say 90% of the time or put a number on it whatever you feel) would not collect or keep what they know they should not. Every state has such different rules but different needs and different data sets on all their aquatic resources. We all here pretty well know better as aquarists we dont go dumping things we dont want after we grow tired up them, and many instances the same species may be found naturally. Ive seen things mentioned for Ohio somewhere about releasing natives isnt encouraged into other private waterways or back into something because of genetic and pathological reasons. Obviosly the release of exotics not aloud. Then you have things like goldfish is bait but you cant release them and wow is it confusing.

I think much of its relative to the unique situation though. Someone might see Iowa Darters that I had on display last year in a tank in Ohio and they go "arent those endangered here" (they arent they are a candidate for concern or of concern but thats beside the point) and then I have to explain well I obtained them from Michigan, and the population that they came from was more than healthy. It would get down to so many particulars though about where you should and shouldnt collect. Its always one individual to that seems to ruin it for everyone and then the lawyers find something new. When it comes down to it its about responsibility, education, and common sense, all of which seem to be whisked away by everyone else but the people who truly care about the resource.
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