Exactly Jack... but mines make money, so it's a hypocritical ball-game really - target the little blokes to be seen to be doing something for conservation. If you fly over the upper Hunter Valley in NSW as I have done a couple of times recently, the coal mines have reduced everything to a moonscape as far as you can see - would mean the deaths of many millions of reptiles, not to mention those killed on the country roads by the bumper-to-bumper traffic of commuting mineworkers... But perish the thought if a mine worker collects something which is probably doomed, and takes it home to keep. Throw the book at the bastard!
The propaganda machines still fool a lot of our fellow herpers though.
Jamie