Greetings Conch-lers,
 
I was curious about two points raised by Ross:
 
1.  How many collections that are donated to a museum are actually added
to the shelves, and more importantly, verified?  The California Academy of
Sciences has collections that are waiting to be added, and most are not
verified (to my knowledge), mainly due to low staff support, which is a
shame.  These shells are collecting dust and useless to most people.
 
2.  How many collections are sold?  I've read several discussions about
presumably extensive collections being sold or donated to individuals.
 
Perhaps the shell enthusiast can devote some of his/her time at the local
museum as a volunteer, lending their expertise for identifying donated
collections and cataloging them, making them more useful and informative
for all users.
 
> qualified" to do it!!  Further, even many of the
> "unscientifically-oriented" collectors amass specimens with good data,
> which wind up in museum or institutional collections used by
> "accredited" scientists, and with marine collection in particular, the
> great majority of collectors of ALL kinds do little damage to the
> environment they are collecting from.  The few that do end up doing
> harm, should be reprimanded, and more importantly, EDUCATED by the rest
> of us.
 
Steve Lonhart
Department of Biology           Office:  (831) 459-4026
University of California        FAX:     (831) 459-4882
Santa Cruz, CA  95064           email:   [log in to unmask]
 
WEBSITE:  http://www-biology.ucsc.edu/people/potts/lonhart/