Are these protected in the US?
I´ve witnessed an explosion of avaliability of this species in this side of the ocean, many shops start having these for relatively low to very low prices... All WC no doubt. A great amount of Euryceas and Desmognathus came along and I guess this was all done illegally...Sad thing is, being so cheap, any one these days can buy them and WC animals as Necturus are very dificult to climatize once again in a tank so I expect that sadly many individuals will pass away... These are not easy at all after the stress they were subjected from the import. I have a friend that is in this hobby for nearly 30 years, and he lost already 1 of his 4 N.maculosus. Imagine what will a noob, or relatively young person on the hobby do to these...
Anyway these are only my 2 cents...