PLEASE VOTE ON THIS ISSUE

[Dave Chesmore]

While I can understand the wishes of some people to release 
butterflies in an attempt to gain public awareness of the declien of 
butterflies, I consider this viewpoint to be very narrowminded and 
similar to some views in the UK.

Butterflies form a small proportion of Lepidoptera (about 2% in the UK) 
yet I hear no-one advocating the mass release of moths, or what 
about declining fly, beetle species, etc.  In the UK, butterflies are  of 
Lepidoptera.

I don't believe releases of this nature, without any sound ecological 
reasoning, will achieve anything, especially public awareness.  The 
"public" has a notoriously short memory and all the releases will 
achieve is to destroy the years of hard work of scientists carrying out 
surveys.  I suppose there might be one good outcome - lots of 
nutritious food for birds.

Dr David Chesmore, FRES
Environmental Electronics Research Group
Dept. of Electronic Engineering
University of Hull, Hull, HU6 7RX
Tel: +482 465062;  Fax: +482 466664
Email:  E.D.Chesmore at E-Eng.Hull.AC.UK
Web page: http://www.hull.ac.uk/php/eepmds/home.htm