In Italy these last days have been characterized by a discussion raging on the web about the damage caused by children who, on the beach, play with net and bucket, catching crabs, shrimp, small fishes etc. ENPA’s appeal against the capture of marine animals on the beaches has indeed stimulated a heated debate on the topic and has been reported by many of the major national newspapers.
Let’s immediately assume that no one, least of all us Naturalists, is pleased to see dying animals in buckets under the sun, and that every good Naturalist knows that in these cases, whenever possible, should intervene and make the children understand (and first of all to their parents) how much the absolutely unnecessary death of those poor animals is avoidable.
Having said that, however, as a professional Zoologist and Naturalist – a profession that I had consciously chosen already from primary school – I can only give an ode to the net and the direct observation of the lesser fauna, on the beach as in other environments.
I grew up, together with exploring with the soul of the young Naturalist every environment in which I was, immersing myself in the texts of authors who have marked the world of Natural Sciences and scientific popularization and I have always seen myself when they told their childhood.
“For me, the enchantment of childhood is still enclosed in that net. Better if it is not an impeccable instrument, with a brass handle and gauze bag; indeed, tradition has it that you prepare it yourself, at home, in ten minutes (…) With such a contraption, at the age of nine I captured the first daphnia for my little fish, thus discovering the small wonders of the freshwater pond who immediately seduced me with his charm. Those who have contemplated the beauty of nature with their own eyes (…) if they have eyes to see will inevitably become a naturalist“.
This was written by the Nobel Prize winner Konrad Lorenz in his famous book “The ring of King Solomon“, Reading, once again, these words I was, again, excited.
“The ponds were teeming with life, and I spent days alone and in the water: I waited with the net, hidden in the middle of the reeds, for something to happen, that the tree frog came out to croak, that the kingfisher went down on the stickleback (…) I caught frogs as big as a thumb and chased fish (…) Without knowing it, at eleven years of age I had become an explorer.”
This is what the Naturalist Marc Jeanson (head of the Herbarium of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris) writes in his book “the Botanist” when, in the first chapter, he tells how his visceral love for nature was born.
As an example, I deliberately left last what is undoubtedly my main source of inspiration, the Zoologist Geral Durrell. The adventures of the young Gerald on the island of Corfu (masterfully described in several books of great international success, above all “My family and other animals“) are all focused on his naturalistic explorations and the net is the protagonist on many of those occasions that it would have been impossible to choose one.
Would these luminaries of the Natural Sciences and science popularization become what they were if they were forbidden to use the net?
The theme of how we approached the world of Zoology is usually central when a friendship is born between people who practice this type of profession and I have found myself over the years, at different latitudes in the world, chatting about this topic. If it is not a general rule, and consequently what I say cannot obviously be considered statistically significant, it is true that I have always noticed in an high percentage of colleagues, stories of a similar childhood spent capturing and observe animals among beaches, meadows and marshes (poor our mothers!).
As many experts in the sector agree, probably, with my vision, many others will not agree and will have all the necessary reasons to be skeptical about it. I find their skepticism supported by interesting and usually well-founded positions (even if far from my personal vision), what I find unbearable are the attacks on the issue that come from people who know nothing about nature (and neither they are interested ti do), who get mas for a captured crab but who, at the same time, do not give a damn about the real causes (perhaps often related to their lifestyle) that lead to the reduction of biodiversity and the destruction of ecosystems.
It is also necessary to make a small note: if it is true that the catch and observation of animals should be reduced to the bare minimum, it is at the same time true that the animals usually caught (small fishes and invertebrates characteristic of tide pools) are actually species particularly resistant, accustomed to fighting for survival in an environment, that in many ways (which include variation in salinity and temperature and wave-related disturbance) is among the most extreme of our areas.
Let’s go back to me, what was once the skinny boy in the photo, the net was (as well as for my brother, he too, coincidentally, zoologist) the best friend for all the summers of childhood.
Capturing blennids, rock shrimps, young mullets and crabs in the tide pools has been a very important part of the process that has made us aware that we want to commit ourselves, with all of us, once we are adults, to the protection of biodiversity.
When we were very young, we began to know the different species of inhabitants of the tide pools, the parental care in the runner crabs, the ability of various species of blennids to resist out of the water for long moments (as if they were Mediterranean mudskippers). The more we grew, the more the love for that diversity grew with us and the more awareness of wanting to cause them as little disturbance as possible during our observations as young Naturalists (thanks also to the attention and sensitivity of our parents who helped us have always spurred us to cultivate this enormous passion of ours).
More than campaigns of an unnecessary severity, I, like many colleagues, believe that it is important to focus on the education of children, and first of all parents, as was already suggested, just a few weeks ago by the Naturalist Marco Colombo, in one of the his posts on facebook with the highest number of interactions.
We should not deprive children of the pleasure of discovery, more than anything else we should address their innate curiosity for nature in the right way in order to have adults in the future who know how to have the right consciousness towards environmental issues.
Having said that (if used well, let’s specify it again!):
LONG LIFE THE NET, COMPANION OF A THOUSAND ADVENTURES!
Valerio Giovanni Russo, Naturalist and Zoologist
