(This was written using voice-recognition software. It's more Emily Latella
than  Star Trek, and has been known to embed weird things in the text. So, if
you are getting numeral ones instead of apostrophes, for example, I apologize.
Do not adjust your set. The problem is on this end.)
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My name is Ellen Bulger, and I'm fairly new to this list. I confess I've been
"lurking" these last few weeks, just reading all your posts and enjoying them
immensely.
 
I've always loved natural history, especially marine biology, albeit at the
hobbyist level. I live in New Haven, Connecticut. I suppose there are
marvelous shells to be found on Long Island Sound, but the limited diversity
is a bit of a bummer. It's been during visits to the Bahamas, North Carolina
and Florida that I've done my bit of collecting.
 
It's only recently that I decided to immerse myself mollusk-wise. I was on a
liveaboard dive boat in the Bahamas. We dove off Conception Island, Rum Key
and San Salvador. The diving was splendid but, it's illegal to collect when
you're using scuba. (Anyway, I don't do the live shell thing myself.) The long
and short of it was that we got hardly any beach time and I found myself going
into shell withdrawal.
 
When I got home I started pouring through books, trying to give myself a crash
taxonomy course. I've been sorting and sorting and puzzling my way through
these baffling limpets.
 
And I am thrilled to have discovered this list.