Dear Concher's,
It seems no reference method is absolutely foolproof.  Access locations and
road numbers change.  I used a boat ramp access, a very common reference for
freshwater naiads,  for a state park in Missouri, and the state put in a new
boat ramp about 1/4 mile distant. You would now no longer know where the
original boat ramp was.  Also the road numbers change such as the road to
Morris Bridge park in Tampa.  If you used the old road number, you would get
lost.  Topography map names do change over time,especially when a city
envelops a rural area, the old Topo. place names get lost.  GPS locations
can be different also, depending on when you collected.  When the government
jammed the signal, my GPS was accurate, supposedly, to within 300' of the
actual location.  The jamming ended a couple of years ago, but one is not
always able to update all the collecting areas to get the newer, more
accurate GPS data.  Thanks to Marc Argen who responded to my previous
Conch-L question about the fun of using GPS in foreign lands.  He related a
problem of using the GPS for land shell collecting with the farmers in one
Caribbean location and explained his GPS as an "electronic compass" which is
probably the best description to the uninitiated.  My GPS was confiscated in
a foreign locale because the customs folks thought it could be used for
"military purposes."-  ah, the fun we have just to collect shells.

Alan Gettleman
Merritt Island, Florida

 Plan to attend the Astronaut Trail Shell Show, January 17-19,2003 at the
Melbourne Auditorium in Melbourne, Florida.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Charles F Sturm" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, January 04, 2003 11:24 AM
Subject: Re: Bad data revisited...


> Charles,
>   I will not comment on the problem dealing with the Indo-Pacific islands
> since I have never collected there.
>  Regarding roads, I try to keep a current map which shows the road or site
> in question. One can always refer back to the map for exact coordinates.
> This does not necessarily help someone that I send shells to, but it will
> help the ultimate recipient of my collection. Also, someone could always
> check with me and I can provide the information.
>
> Regards,
> Charlie
>
****************************************************************************
**
> Charlie Sturm, Jr
> Research Associate - Section of Mollusks
>                      Carnegie Museum of Natural History
>                      Pittsburgh, PA, USA
>
> Assistant Professor - Family Medicine
>
> [log in to unmask]