You've probably all seen those little baskets of $3 or $5 Filipino shells, sold in seaside souvenir shops, worldwide. That, quite frankly, doesn't do a lot of harm to conservation. The shells are usually hugely abundant, and almost all of them are dead, beach-found shells - it is simply too much trouble to clean out live-caught corpses. So, don't worry too much about those, so far as real conservation goes. Those little baskets keep a lot of the people who make them up get enough of a rice ration to live. If there were people out there who would buy pea pods, I'm sure someone would be hanging around the trash cans at the Birdseye frozen pea factory right now. regards Richard Parker Siargao Island, The Philippines. My website at www.coconutstudio.com is about the island and its people, coastal early humans, fishing, coconuts, bananas and whatever took my fancy at the time. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [log in to unmask] - a forum for informal discussions on molluscs To leave this list, click on the following web link: http://listserv.uga.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=conch-l&A=1 Type your email address and name in the appropriate box and click leave the list. ----------------------------------------------------------------------