Is This Ethical?

[careyjonz95]

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl= ... N%26um%3D1

I'm not sure if this is great or horrible. Wouldn't it be easier for humans to just stop collecting shells?

[emmac350]

People are never going to stop collecting shells. It's just how it is. I laugh at that project, because the shells they've made don't look to actually be good for hermit crabs. Additionally, this just made me laugh:

In order to carry its home, one of the crab's front claws is completely dedicated to clutching the shell. This claw bends backward and holds on to the spool of calcium carbonate at the shell's center. In order to move, the animal must first use this claw to lift the shell and heave it onto its back.

Seriously? My two crabs' front claws aren't used for that...maybe if they made things that FIT and were good for crabs...

[careyjonz95]

Maybe they are actually talking about the abdomen?

[RottenLullaby]

If the crabs can use them and they offer more protection then half of bottles...well, why not? To me its not so much about "Well if we make fake shells for them we are unethical" that's not a mater of ethical or not. Its more a matter of man trying to right once again the wrongs its done to nature by interfering with its natural pattern. (By shell collecting, pollution, ect.) So I think if it helps why not, it would help more if we stopped the practices that are causing shell shortages in the first place but, that's hope against hope.

[HermitOrCrabs]

I voted 4 becuase, I have no idea, infact none of us know whether they mind or not. Though in my deepest opinion, no, I think hermit crabs should be in a natural shell in-which they were meant to be in. But, as long as they are happy with them, or at the same time like them, im ok with them.

[CrabbyJo]

I don't think it's a question of ethics. It sounds like they are trying to make up for man's impact on the environment in the only way they know how.
Problem for me is the possible production of said plastics to begin with may have something to do with the decline in the shell availability. My guess would not be so much about shell collecting as it is about a decline in gastropods. I wonder if that's been researched recently. I had read something recently about a decline in hermit crabs themselves.
We humans are stuck in a spiral that we won't get out of without some great cataclysm (not foretelling gloom and doom, just saying we are too entrenched). We are so incredibly dependent now upon the production of plastics, fossil fuels, chemicals and man made drugs, as well as the huge amount of waste we produce, that there is no way we can easily turn it around. So many are trying by "going green" and going organic, but while it does make SOME impact, it still does not stop the incredible amount of toxins that are constantly being pumped into our environment.
Do you wonder why SO many people have allergies now? I bet you know at least 3 or 4 people with allergies, and now know at least one person or more who has been diagnosed with cancer. Do you realize that most of our food comes from plants that are engineered, or cross pollinated, creating strains that never would have occured in nature? Our bodies are part of this world of nature we live in, and we are creating fuel for it that was not created by nature, so it doesn't "jive" with the makeup of our bodies. Our bodies do the best they can to process it, but with so many chemicals and preservatives in the foods we eat constantly, and the slight twist we have given to the foods nature has made for us with our genetic manipulations, our bodies are unable to keep working right.
I think we'll function fine as we always have, I hate it when people start preaching the end of the world or the total destruction of nature as we know it - but truth be told, I think things just will get worse until we pretty much revert back to using what we have and not using things that cause harm. Nature will survive without us. Even after we are gone, nature will recover.

As for that article - who the heck wrote that part about a FRONT claw being used to lift the "shell" and cart it around. Ridiculous. It makes them look like fools who have no clue and are just bleeding heart do-gooders who haven't researched what they are doing.