Dear Phil,
 
please give me your privat e-mail, thar I can come in contact with
you.
 
with malacological greetings
 
Helmut Nisters from Innsbruck / Austria
 
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
homepage: http.//www.netwing.at/nisters/
 
----------
> I have been lurking on this list for a good while, enjoying the useful
> information, occassional travelogue, and moments of humor. This list has
> all of the qualities of a genuine community with wisdom, character and
> personality all mixed together.
>
> For a bit of an introduction-
>
> I live in Southern California and began to collect local Cenozoic fossil
> mollusks about ten years ago. Since then, I have pursued fossil mollusks
> very seriously and have collected fossils extensively in my local area,
> the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii.  About five years ago, I began to
> collect landsnails seriously as well.  Just recently, I began to enter
> into the world of modern marine shells. And what a different world it
> is...
>
> Over the years, I have been able to acquire a fairly large collection of
> fossils through trading local material with fellow collectors in France,
> England, Uruguay, Australia, Italy, Japan, Austria, Canada and, of
> course, the US.  Trading has proven to be a wonderful experience as I've
> "met" some fascinating people while building a decent collection.  In
> exchanges with others, I have always tried to send my trading partners
> the best specimens available and have been generally been very pleased
> with the material that I received in return.  True, an apex may be
> somewhat worn, a spine tip slightly broken or a lip slightly abraded but
> such is the nature of preservation of fossil mollusks.
>
> I have rarely encountered many fossil shells for sale and have,
> therefor, rarely purchased any.  I have exhibited fossil mollusks in a
> number of shows (fossil, gem and mineral shows) and have usually done
> quite well in competition.
>
> Suddenly, I've encountered a new world that assigns a specific monetary
> value to every shell and uses codes like F, F+++ and GEM to address
> every detail of a shell's condition.   Frankly, its all a bit
> intimidating to a new collector who would like to be "serious".  But,
> when you see specimens selling for thousands of dollars, the thought of
> developing a fairly extensive collection of any genus is somewhat
> daunting.
>
> Even so, I have been plugging away in earnest and have a number of very
> basic questions for the veterans on this list:
>
> 1) How (where?) does one collect in Southern California?  I have been
> reading about the shelling restrictions in California and I wondered
> what local collectors do if they are interested in picking up local
> species while remaining within the limits of the law.  Do the beach
> collecting restrictions apply to the islands off the coast as well?
>
> 2)  Assuming that one answer is diving, how do dive boat captains react
> to shellers?  Are there general suggestions for finding boats where
> shelling is welcome or ways to avoid those where it is not?
>
> 3) What sorts of collecting bags/bottles/etc. do people prefer for
> snorkling?  How about for diving?  Why?
>
> 4) What is the best way to get rid of coralline algae?  I've noticed
> that quite a few of the shells in our local tidepools are fairly well
> encrusted and encountered many shells in Hawaii completely coated with
> the white or pink gunk.
>
> 5)  Any shelling suggestions for Maui and Kauai?  I plan to visit both
> islands in December.
>
>
> (I know that some of these questions have been covered somewhat in
> recent threads but I haven't been able to distill out the specific
> answers I'm looking for.)
>
> I apologize for going on a little too long and for unleashing too many
> questions on the list at one time.  But, you know how eager us novices
> can be..............
>
> Looking forward to continuing to learn much from this very special
> community.
>
>
> Phil Liff-Grieff
> La Crescenta, California
> [log in to unmask]
>