Collecting anything and future nature interest

[Doug Yanega]

As this has progressed, Mark Walker got around to saying:

>I think it is wrong to formulate a bias against insect collectors because of
>the prejudices associated with the proverbial egg collector.  This, however,
>is the standard attitude being conveyed by the schools and the media (but
>obviously propagated by other sources initially).

This is straying close to matters of legality. We're actually dealing with
two very different issues here, and it's one I'm not sure people in the
discussion have taken into account; there's *public* perception of
collecting, and then there's the *legal* aspects. Griping about the former
is one thing, but let's be careful about confusing it with the latter, as
that is something pretty much unavoidable until and unless we get
legislators who are willing to undertake the drafting of a separate set of
rules to deal with invertebrates. At present, we have *no* option other
than regulating collecting of insects by applying the rules that control
the catching and killing of vertebrates. No one is now or is ever likely to
be willing to undertake the effort and expense of drafting a parallel set
of regulations, so we're stuck with blanket rules. Given that we have to
make due with those laws, the anti-collecting bias is built-in, even if
everyone knows and acknowledges its shortcomings as applied to insects.
We've been over this before here, and I still don't believe we will ever
have the luxury of custom-made legislation that is appropriate to our
purposes.

Peace,


Doug Yanega       Dept. of Entomology           Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California - Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521
phone: (909) 787-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
                http://insects.ucr.edu/staff/yanega.html
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82