NOT the collecting debate :-)

[Chris J. Durden]

At 07:18  22/06/99 +0100, you wrote:
>
>
>Chris Durden wrote:
>> 
>>   You are so right. The laws have changed since we were children and things
>> we did cannot be done any more. Maybe some of the laws should be rewritten
>> by naturalists to promote the study of what they are trying to protect.
>It's an interesting problem. Herp lovers are in much deeper than we are
>... do we want kids to keep exotic snakes (which they will then release
>in the Everglades) or do we want people catching and selling native
>snakes, or do we like them to rear native snakes in captivity, with the
>possibility of spreading disease to wild populations when the snake
>decamps? 
>
>
>> No-one has answered my qustion yet. Are amoebae wildlife. A recent NPR
>> report on research in Yellowstone geyser pools suggests they are.
>
>I missed that one. Wildlife, certainly. Do we have to protect them? I
>suppose so. There's a nice one in Florida that causes encephalitis when
>it gets up your nose. It's a much worse threat than those alligators. 
>We used to swim in the lake by our house. Now we don't. 
---------
  Yes we have that *Astramoeba* in our warm swimming holes in Texas, they
take people once in a while and turn their brains to mush - more dangerous
than a GRIZZLY BEAR or a BUSHMASTER.
---------
>
>>   By the way, is capture and release still permitted in South Florida, or
>> will you get a ticket for carrying a net?
 
>
>Depends where you are. For butterfly counts, we have the enthusiastic
>assistance of park rangers etc. ... this is a very popular sport. We
>wave nets about ad lib. But since most parks etc. are being
>butterfly-gardened by local school children, garden clubbers and so
>forth, collecting there is rather like hunting in a chicken-yard. 
>I speak of South Florida, specifically Palm Beach and Martin counties
>... can't guarantee other areas. 
>If you want to do catch and release in a park, talk to the
>administration. They might well like a species list for their park ...
>looks good in the records.
----
  Yes that is the procedure we all use. Discretionary excuse from the
letter of the law. This practice is not conducive to  good law enforcement
practices or to teaching respect for the laws to our youth.
--------
>And if they tell you to run along and not bother them, that would be
>because we're dealing with the human race, here.
------
  I find this response more frequent from private landowners who often do
not want us to find a rare species on their land, report it and then have
the Government want to manage it.
------
 Redeemed we may be, but
>enlightened we are not. 
>Cheers
>Anne Kilmer
>Mayo
>Ireland 
>(and South Florida)
>
>>