>Dear Conch-lers,
>
>I have added little information on my website about the trawling trip.
>I've also rationalized the photos using pics in the main page: in
>this way loading time should be less and you can enjoy photos
>clicking on the pics.
>
>I had some problems while sorting a small sample of deep water mud
>found in a bottle taken by the trawl.
>I used a very fine metal mesh (0,5 mm), but mud always tended to
>create agglomerates which hid the small shells.  Moreover, the mesh
>was probably not fine enough for the tiny bivalves present.
>Any suggestions?

Dry the mud thoroughly, then add a warm-to-hot solution of washing
soda. This should disaggregate it. Another method is to soak the dry
mud in kerosene, drain it and then pour in hot water; the water
drives out the kero and breaks the mud up.

These methods are not perfect...

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