Arturo:

Regarding need for good plankton i.d. keys, check out:

Cupp, E.E.  1943.  Marine plankton diatoms of the west coast of North
Amercia.  IN: H.U. Sverdrup et al. (ed.) Bulletin of the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography of the University of California, La Jolla, California.
University of California Press.  Berkeley.  Volume 5, No. 1.  238 pp.

I don't know if it is still in press, but I have a copy.  If you can't turn this
up locally, drop a line and I'll send a copy.

Tim Tynan
Washington Dept. Fish and Wildlife
Olympia, WA
[log in to unmask]