I'm sorry - I didn't know that a physical location at the bottom of an
e-mail" protocol had been established.  For those that are interested I live
on the point of land that seperates the Chukchi Sea from the Beaufort Sea.
I'm sure it's now quite clear to everybody where that's at since there just
aren't that many seas in the world, are there?  Regardless - my personal
philosophy is: "What's important ain't the latitude - it's the attitude."

No Tom - the snails don't use skis.  In fact, as far as I know there are no
land snails in the general vacinity at all.  I think you have to be south
about 375 miles (that's approx 625 km, Patty) before you'd find any of those
types of invertebrates.

The ocean in my part of the, er, "woods", has about a 6 inch (~150mm) tide
so you don't see a whole lot of the inter-tidal zone fauna.  I do see a
bunch of interesting shells after large storms before the pack ice comes
back in.  Not many different species - mostly bivalves and all, with out
exception, white in color.

By the way, yesterday some signifcant leads opened right next to shore and
so it's starting to appear like this may not be the once or twice in a
hundred years or so when the ice doesn't go out.

As far as shelling efforts - my plans have been greatly helped by Paul's
article on dredging.  I'm planning on trying a little in August, ice
conditions willing.  I find a lot of Epitonium greenlandicum on the beach
after storms but of course they're all dead and usually in pretty rough
shape.

Most of the marine mammals in this area that weigh less than 10 tons feed on
fish and shell fish so it'll be interesting to see what I can pull up.  (The
bigger mammals tend to feed only on plankton).


Anyhow - as they say in this part of the world - Stay Warm.

-Brooke

Oh yeah - As long as you speak the right language then you know exactly
where I live when I tell you it's been called by some for a couple of
thousand years "Ukpeagvik".




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