<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Carpentersreef:
<strong>Maybe we should start licensing aquarists so that they need a certain level of certification in order to purchase certain corals.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Actually, I know quite a few people who would support just such a thing, and not just on the retailer level- at the hobbyist level,too. SCUBA is self-regulating in that regard, but for another reason altogether- the safety issue.
Usually the reason I see it come up is when a hobbyist is looking for info on critters or problem X. They are given an answer which they may not like, even though it is in their critter's best interests. They then continue to solicit info until they receive the answer they want to hear, even though it is wrong. Having gotten the answer that reinforces their own idea(s), they happily wander off again, to their critters' detriment. This is the sort of ignorance that disturbs me, especially since most of the people I have seen do this are repeat offenders. Experiences with folks like this make me wistfully dream of a qualification process.
In all honesty though, I never see a test of any sort being put into place unless all outside (i.e. non-captive raised) imports were banned except to those who had such a license.
[ December 16, 2001: Message edited by: Chucker ]</p>