I'm sorry - I didn't know that a physical location at the bottom of an e-mail" protocol had been established. For those that are interested I live on the point of land that seperates the Chukchi Sea from the Beaufort Sea. I'm sure it's now quite clear to everybody where that's at since there just aren't that many seas in the world, are there? Regardless - my personal philosophy is: "What's important ain't the latitude - it's the attitude." No Tom - the snails don't use skis. In fact, as far as I know there are no land snails in the general vacinity at all. I think you have to be south about 375 miles (that's approx 625 km, Patty) before you'd find any of those types of invertebrates. The ocean in my part of the, er, "woods", has about a 6 inch (~150mm) tide so you don't see a whole lot of the inter-tidal zone fauna. I do see a bunch of interesting shells after large storms before the pack ice comes back in. Not many different species - mostly bivalves and all, with out exception, white in color. By the way, yesterday some signifcant leads opened right next to shore and so it's starting to appear like this may not be the once or twice in a hundred years or so when the ice doesn't go out. As far as shelling efforts - my plans have been greatly helped by Paul's article on dredging. I'm planning on trying a little in August, ice conditions willing. I find a lot of Epitonium greenlandicum on the beach after storms but of course they're all dead and usually in pretty rough shape. Most of the marine mammals in this area that weigh less than 10 tons feed on fish and shell fish so it'll be interesting to see what I can pull up. (The bigger mammals tend to feed only on plankton). Anyhow - as they say in this part of the world - Stay Warm. -Brooke Oh yeah - As long as you speak the right language then you know exactly where I live when I tell you it's been called by some for a couple of thousand years "Ukpeagvik". _______________________________________________________________ Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com