On 4 Feb 97 at 10:11, Ron Coleman wrote:
>....
> I DON'T THINK A CALL FOR WIDESPREAD HYBRIDIZATION EXPERIMENTS IS
> EITHER WARRANTED NOR RESPONSIBLE.
>
> Perhaps certain crosses are of interest and value, notably
> particular species in say Lake Malawi, but many other crosses will
> lead to tons of dangerous fish and no useful information. ....
Though I'm sure Mr. Turner was not trying to encourage damaging
hybrid proliferation, I support Ron Coleman's position. Only with
strong and constant action against certain current beliefs on the
acceptableness of hybridization, do we have any chance of stopping
the worldwide spread of hybrid genetics.
I'd like to support Ron Coleman's request that we not encourage
non-scientists to hybridize without close scientific supervision.
Hybridization is very common already. It pollutes the aquarium
trade. It does risk wild populations in the long term (I don't have
time to explain this and if you think environmentalists are generally
extremist you would not grasp (believe) my explanation anyway). The
encouragement would spread beyond Cichlid-L and be used to support
`'bad'' behaviour by others. The descendants of some of these
experiments would spread throughout the world.
Of course, in the long run, human actions may lead to such a
major genetic mixing and loss of "pure species" (plants and fishes)
anyway (even if we try hard to avoid it), that we could just assume
it's too late and/or an unavoidable future, then mix and match all we
want. Since I raise more exotic plants than fish, I have somewhat
selfishly decided we all should try to continue protecting fish
species from genetic pollution while giving up on protecting the
world's plants from being mixed fully. But, I still believe it is
worthwhile to try to protect fish species-purity.
I think we can find win-win solutions here if we all agree
hybridization should be discouraged except under controlled
circumstances. Asking people to document accidental hybridization
(while encouraging them to destroy the progeny) could possibly
achieve Mr. Barlow's goals and mine (Ron's?).
I believe a main goal of species conservationists needs to be to
educate the intentional hybridizers that most scientists oppose their
activities. With plants it is too late. Plant Hybridizers are much
loved by most plant scientists. With fish I still hope that science
can take a moral-high-road (vilify hybridizers) before it is too
late. If the scientists oppose the spread of genetic mixing, maybe
we have a chance of discouraging (educating) the public from keeping,
spreading and encouraging the production of such critters.
KellyO
Kelly O'Neill
Wet Rock Gardens/Habitat Creations
1950 Yolanda AVE
Springfield, Oregon 97477
Soon my E-Addresses will be:(by 3/97)
kellyo at wetrock.com
www.wetrock.com