In Reply to: I know what you mean, posted by Rex on Friday, 2. February 2007 at 09:05 Bali Time:
see that buying dead shells just encourages the sellers to buy more from the collectors? Surely that is obvious, isn't it? That's no more of an argument than if you paid for a tiger skin or a leopard skin or ivory - yes it's already dead but you are providing a profit for the seller which encourages more harvesting/destruction of the wild species. Can't you see that?
There is simply no way that it is moral to buy shells, dead or alive. Yes there should be an international agreement but we all must take responsibility for our own behaviour. I post on this issue because if fewer people buy shells, this could spread and lessen the market for them. Morality is a personal thing, you know. We don't just leave it up to governments.