New member with old collection

[Bill55AZ]

It seems nowadays that seashells are harder to come by, and I can understand that.  Too many collectors taking too many shells.
I was stationed at the U. S. Navy base in Cuba in the early 70's and got most of mine while snorkeling, getting live shells and cleaning them.  I and my friends would only take a few, and chose quality over quantity.  One shell in particular that we kept quiet about was the West Indies Murex.  We knew of only one place to find them and made sure that we  took only a few nice ones, leaving the rest to sutain the population.  Someone outside our small group of collectors found the site, and took them all.   He got chewed out, but the damage was done.  We looked  but never did find another site for that particular shell on the base.
Our small group, 3 or 4 people over my 3 year stay there, had rules.  Number one rule was that personal collecting should be done with restraint.
Second rule was that a damaged shell that would not look good in a display case should be left in the water, especially those shells that could be bought at the tourist places like Haiti and Jamaica, places we could visit from GTMO. The Queen Conch shell was available everywhere, as the locals ate them and threw the shells in large piles, until they figured out that tourists would buy them.

[dave r]

Nice post Bill. It is a shame others can't show the same amount of restraint. Those rules of yours are just common sense to me but I have on many occasions seen damaged or juvenile shells offered for sale.
I wonder how long it will be  before the Philippines are totally cleared of shells, half the population seem to be dealers these days and all offer more or less the same species.
Thanks for sharing,
Dave

[brambio]

I agree Bill, over collecting may damage the ecosystem.