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
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