At 3:07 PM -0400 5/14/01, Shireen Gonzaga wrote:
>Rjga at aol.com wrote:
>
>> The consensus among field
>> biologists is that nobody cares if you take fish home for your own
>> aquarium
>
>But a Forest Service aquaintance told me that it *is* a
>concern, which is why I posed this question to the list.
Seems to me that the primary issues would be overfishing and the release of
captive fishes into natural waters, either to their home drainage or to
other drainages. I think both of these issues need to be addresssed. Your
(Shireen) point that the popularity of the hobby will have a strong effect,
I think is the pivotal one. Agencies do not (as far as I know) monitor
populations for effects caused by recreational collecting of non-game
species. In general, I think they do monitor for exotic introductions, but
not for cross-drainage native species introductions. If the hobby becomes
very popular, some kind of monitoring will likely be needed. If agencies
start selling enough licenses to recreational collectors, they may have
some funds and motivation to do so. It's in their interest and missions to
promote and maintain a sustainable use of the resource.
As to whether an individual's keeping wild fish in captivity constitutes an
educational use, I thinks that's debatable. In theory, that person is
gaining some knowledge about the animals he/she has and may, at some point,
share that knowledge with others. Is that enough bang for the buck (fish)?
Well, that's where the debate starts, it seems to me.
Mark
Columbus Ohio USA <))><
mbinkley at columbus.rr.com
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