Good luck on collecting chitons. They are fascinating, but do require a
certain amount of skill to collect. Look under rocks and under sand or
silt around the base of rocks, just remember to replace all rocks as you
find them for the sake of the other lifeforms living on, under and
around them. I use a flexible, thin putty knife to slide carefully under
the speciman and remove it from the rock surface..you just have to be
careful not to gut them when you do it. Now, I know I will get some
questions on this next part, but it actually works for me very well, and
I've never lost a speciman to curling..I always have a covered plastic
bucket filled with seawater with me when I collect chitons and I just
put them in the bucket and allow them to crawl around until I get them
home. Then, after setting up my alcohol/glycerin solution, I slide the
chiton off the smooth surface of the bucket onto a slide, tongue
depressor or thin wooden strip, tie them in place with a width fabric
strip and place them in the solution. After a couple of days, or when I
can get back to them, I decide which are going to be wet specimens and
which I will clean the critter out of inorder to see the inside view of
the plates.
  A very dear friend of mine, Barbara Wilson, went collecting with us
one time and she tied her specimens to thin wood strips and placed them
in a bucket to keep them upright. She then put the bucket in her car
trunk for the two hour ride back to Tacoma, and when she got home she
found that the little buggers had crawled out from her ties and were
hiding all over her trunk..talk about your smelly adventures..she had a
hard time finding all of them ...until a couple of days later.
 
Best of luck to you,
Patti in New Mexico
 
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