Gee, these guys who are extolling the pleasantries of marine collecting must be divers! No doubt accustomed to gliding silently and effortlessly over pristine reefs in pursuit of those glossy little egg-shaped things. Haven't they ever slogged through ankle-deep mud, silt, and stinking decaying vegetation in search of Melongenas? Or clambered over massive boulders coated with shifting slime-covered seaweed and razor-edged barnacles, fingers and ankles bleeding, for a handful of periwinkles? Or allowed a ten foot wave to fling them up onto an outcrop of exposed volcanic rock in order to grab a shell before the next wave rips them loose? I'll take a quiet walk in the New England woods picking up land snails any day :-) Paul M.