Milking Slit-Shell Snails
Dr. Jerry Harasewych, Curator of Marine Mollusca at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, uses a pipette to "milk," or extract a thick white liquid, from the slit-shell snail, Perotrochus amabilis.
Dr. Melany Puglisi, of the Smithsonian Marine Station at Ft. Pierce, collects the fluid in small jars which she and others at the Marine Station will analyze.
Eight specimens of slit-shell snails collected in the day's submersible dive await milking.