I have been lurking on this list for a long time  (occasionally asking a
question or two) and have decided to do a formal introduction and to relate an
experience that I had the other night.
 
First- My name is Phil Liff-Grieff and I have been collecting fossil mollusks
(excluding cephalopods) for about 10 years.  I began through field collecting
in Southern California and other parts of the Western US but have built my
collection through trading with many wonderful people  all over the world.
 
About two and a half years ago, I began collecting land snails as a result of
encountering fossil land snails in Hawaii.  Since then, I have been very
actively pursuing both shells from and information about recent land snails.
 
Now, I feel that it is necessary to alert others to a new threat to one's
shells that I encountered as a result of a recent foray into the world of
marine mollusk collecting.
 
Last week, I returned from a short vacation on Kauai  (great fossil land
snails).  While there, I started to collect live marine gastropods while
snorkeling and brought home a number of nice shells that I had frozen awaiting
cleaning.  I began cleaning specimens of a few different Cymatium sps., a
couple of nice sized Terebra crenulata, a Hastula, and a few Conus ebraeus.
Having removed some of the soft parts, I left the shells to soak in water on
the back patio while I reviewed the recent shell cleaning threads on this list
for next steps.
 
Before I could proceed further, I discovered that my shells had disappeared as
two large raccoons were seen scurrying over the backyard fence!  Clearly, they
had been at work a good part of the evening carrying off my new treasures
hoping for a bit of a shellfish dinner.  (Too bad they didn't check to see if
their paws could fit in the apertures first).  I plan to be  more careful now
about where I keep shells while the soft parts are being removed.
 
I have thoroughly enjoyed being part of this list, have learned a tremendous
amount and been reasonably entertained by the good mixture of serious shell
talk and humor.  I look forward to generous portions of both in the future.
 
Phil Liff-Grieff
[log in to unmask]