1) anyone seeking information, including distrubution and splendid
identification info, about Pacific North American bivalves should
consult the recently-published monograph: Bivalve Seashells of Western
North America -  Marine Bivalve Mollusks from Baja California to Arctic
Alaska, by Eugene V. Coan, Paul Valentich Scott and Frank R. Bernard.
This is the "definitive" work on the topic for the time being, and comes
highly recommended all round.  It can be obtained at
http://www.sbnature.org/atlas/bivbook.htm .
   2) Jim McClean is currently preparing a similar volume for
gastropods, but he's encountering a LOT more undescribed spp than Scott
and Coan did, so this is a slower process.  Does anyone know
approximately when he thinks this hefty undertaking might be finished??
    3) For nudibranchs,Pacific Coast Nudibranchs: A Guide to the
Opisthobranchs Alaska to Baja California -  Published by Sea Challengers
in 1992:  David W. Behrens, Terry Gosliner, and Ken Hashagen is supposed
to be the Cat's Meow.
    4) The Pacific Coast chiton expose (how does one render those little
French and Germanic accents anyway??) has been writen by Roger Clark in
Klamath Falls, Oregon, and should be published very soon.

If i were on the ball, i'd be doing the preliminary work on similar
monographs for at least the portion of  the Atlantic coast of North
America north of Cape Cod.  It wouln't be easy, however (ok, except for
the chitons!!): the Turridae and Buccinidae alone would require trips
all over Europe to look at the relevant material.  There are about 60
spp of Turridae in my little corner of the world, and i can only put a
"hard and fast, cut and dried" moniker on about 20 of them, based upon
the material i've seen so far, and there at least 25 spp of Buccinids
that pose "significant problems", including a paucity of available
specimens - add in a few more families such as Yoldiidae, with all those
pesky little Yoldiella that one only sees once in a proverbial "blue
moon", and you have about 30% of the total shell-bearing molluscan fauna
of the region "needing work".... of course to do the job PROPERLY,
someone like Mr. McLean would have to move here and slave away full time
for a decade or so - sigh!!

From the Almost White Again and still Great North,
Ross M.