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Fellow Malacologists, I am glad to announce that the 70th Annual Meeting of the American Malacological Society will take place on beautiful Sanibel Island, Florida, from Saturday, July 31, to Wednesday, August 4, 2004. Sanibel Island is a world-renowned, nature-oriented travel destination that is also famous for its bountiful molluscan resources. The event will be hosted by The Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum and will have as its main venue the Sundial Beach Resort, located on the eastern part of the island. The American Malacological Society is a dynamic international society of individuals and organizations with an active interest in the study and conservation of mollusks. AMS covers a wide range of subjects in the field of molluscan studies, and its meetings, symposia, sessions, posters and special events reflect that. A symposium on the Relationships of the Neogastropoda will be convened by M. G. Harasewych of the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution. Special sessions will include Biodiversity of Marine Mollusks (organized by Gustav Paulay, Florida Museum of Natural History); Coastal Molluscan Assemblages as Environmental Indicators (Michael Savarese, Aswany Volety, and Greg Tolley, Florida Gulf Coast University); Systematics of Freshwater Gastropods (Russel Minton, University of Louisiana at Monroe); Terrestrial Mollusks as Agricultural and Environmental Pests (David Robinson, United States Department of Agriculture/Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia), and Global Marine Bivalve Database Workshop (Gustav Paulay, Florida Museum of Natural History, Paul V. Scott, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and Graham Oliver, National Museums & Galleries of Wales). In addition, a special forum organized by Ken Hayes, Anna Bass, and Amy Wethington, all graduate students in malacology, will focus on and discuss common issues and problems faced by soon-to-be professionals in the field. The 70th Annual Meeting will be sponsored by the American Malacological Society, The Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum, The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel, and the Sanibel-Captiva Shell Club, with additional support from the Sanibel-Captiva Chamber of Commerce, Sundial Beach Resort, J. N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge, Florida Gulf Coast University, and Captiva Cruises. The traditional malacological auction will take place on the evening of Monday, August 2, and The Sanibel-Captiva Shell Club will sponsor the Shell Museum Open House on Sunday, August 1. Specially priced rates at the Sundial Beach Resort will be available for meeting participants at $110/night for regular rooms, $125 for the Gulf View rooms, and $175 for two-bedroom suites. Sundial is willing to accommodate up to 6 students per suite, which will lower the cost of accommodations for these low-budget participants. Three field trips are planned for the last day of the meeting, Wednesday, August 4: A nature-watching visit to J. N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel, guided by professional ornithologist and Shell Museum volunteer Dr. Jon Greenlaw; a daylong boat trip to Cayo Costa State Park guided by senior Shell Museum staff (located on isolated and undeveloped Cayo Costa, the park offers pristine views of the Gulf, dunes, lagoons, and opportunities for shell collecting; no live-mollusk collecting is allowed in the park or elsewhere in Lee County); and a visit to a Plio-Pleistocene fossil pit in Sarasota County guided by Roger Portell, invertebrate paleontologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History. More than 24 airlines service Southwest Florida International Airport in neighboring Fort Myers (30 minutes from Sanibel). The Lee Island Coast region and surrounding areas offer many opportunities for side trips on your own, depending on your interest: Edison-Ford Winter Estates, Miracles baseball games, and Everglades National Park, to name a few. More information about the meeting will be provided on the AMS and Shell Museum Web sites as it becomes available. Cordially, José H. Leal, PhD President, American Malacological Society Back to Top