Everyone,

As we wait with horrid anticipation for the oil slick in the Gulf of
Mexico to reach land, and wonder what species it will kill off, and
which ones will flourish during the ecological succession of the
recovery from this event, I suggest that everyone who's close enough to
do so make reference collections of the shells (both micro and macro) on
the shores now, and then go back to collect samples in the same places
both when the oil is on shore, and at intervals in following years.

I know many of you will already be planning to do this, but I also know
that when we had our ice storm in 1998, we proved to be the only
household in eastern Ontario that was out making measurements and
gathering data on what was actually happening during the course of the
storm, so it's easy to be mesmerized by the horror of a disaster and
neglect documenting what the horror actually consisted of. See
http://pinicola.ca/cldm.htm for some preachy advice if you're unsure of
how to proceed.

Data, gathered, analysed, and published, can make a real contribution
towards regulations that regulate the kinds of activities that result in
such man-made disasters.

good luck to the Molluscs,

fred.
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          Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
Bishops Mills Natural History Centre - http://pinicola.ca/bmnhc.htm
Thirty Years Later Expedition -
http://fragileinheritance.org/projects/thirty/thirtyintro.htm
Longterm ecological monitoring - http://fragileinheritance.org/
Daily Paintings - http://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com/
            http://www.doingnaturalhistory.com/
          http://quietcuratorialtime.blogspot.com/
     RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
   on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
    (613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca/
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