Good Afternoon all, I just wanted to briefly share an experience I had this past weekend with you all. My wife and I took 10 Asian college students(Chinese, Taiwanese, and South Korean) down to Sanibel and Cayo Costa. For all but one it was their first time in Florida and other than the Taiwanese, none of them had been to an ocean where the water was clear enough to see any aquatic life. We went to Bowman beach on Saturday and unfortunately the surf was up so there was no vis, but these went crazy over the shells on the beach. So many shells that I would just walk right by as nothing, they would be filling containers with. The mounds of shells they would find on the beach really intrigued them and they asked so many questions about the different species and colors and reproduction.... all these things that I can't really answer yet. Anyways, on Sunday we went to Cayo Costa and while the Gulf side was still zero vis, the bay side was amazing. I got to show them several different living specimens, including a couple of horse conchs having lunch on a lightning whelk and crown conch. Anytime someone found a living specimen, everyone would gather around and examine as if looking for a treasure map or something. When we returned last night, all of them had bags of shells and one evening this week they are all coming over to our place to go through the 'Compendium' and identify their finds. All in all, a great weekend! Lastly, at the end of March my wife and I will be heading to the Bahamas to help some missionaries out and it looks like we will have 1 free day on Abaco (around Marsh Harbour.) If anyone has any recommendations for that area I would greatly appreciate them. You can contact me at [log in to unmask] Thanks, James ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------