Hi Elizabeth - Kind of depends on what you mean by "bleached". Ordinary bleach (such as Chlorox) does not remove colors from shells; in fact bleach is commonly used in cleaning shells. Therefore a "bleached" specimen, in this sense, is not white, and would not be confused with an albino. A second meaning of "bleached" is "sun-bleached", a shell which has been on the beach baking in the sun for some time, and has had its pigments destroyed by ultraviolet radiation and heat. Such a shell is usually not too difficult to tell from a live-collected albino because (1) seldom are the pigments completely destroyed - there is usually some evidence of the original color and pattern visible, at least when the shell is wet, and (2) any shell which has been on the beach long enough to become sun-bleached is likely to be somewhat weathered by rain, wind-driven sand, etc., and is likely to show some degree of pitting, reduced gloss, etc., which clearly mark it as a "beach shell". A third form of "bleaching" is the deliberate destruction of pigment by baking a shell at high temperature, to produce an apparent albino. When I read about this some years ago, I tried it a few times myself, just to see if it worked. I placed some expendable shells on a rack and baked them in the oven at about 300 degrees F (149 degrees C) for an hour. Then, to avoid cracking from sudden temperature change, I turned off the oven and let it gradually cool, without opening it. Shells having a dark pattern, like Babylonia areolata or Terebra subulata showed substantial lightening of the colors. However, shells having fairly light patterns, like Conus textile or Oliva reticularis came out pure white or very nearly so. The olives in particular, I would have to say, would be difficult to tell from natural albinos. Something to keep in mind if someone offers you albino specimens. True albinos do occur in many species though, and in some species, such as some of the cockles (Cardiidae), they are fairly common. There are only two ways to know the relative rarity of albinism in a particular species - hit the books, or ask on Conch-L. Paul M.