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[Don Yee]

Just finished reading the excellent Tiger Tracks and was curious about the section on the Gordon Object. In that section it states that Keith Gordon sent images of an object he photographed but didn't collect that could be a coral encrusted piece of stringer.

Why didn't Keith collect it? I know hindsight is 20/20, but it seems odd that it was not collected. I'm surprised folks don't collect anything that could may possible be related to Earhart during expeditions. Was there something preventing him from doing so?

Also, has anyone does research to examine the rate of coral encrusting in case any aluminum is found? Seems like this would be a relatively straight forward experiment (although perhaps time consuming).

Thanks.

[Ric Gillespie]

Expedition members are told not to collect objects of interest but to carefully note their location and mark them so they can be re-located and collected under archaeological protocols.  Keith should have buoyed the spot and reported the find to the expedition's archaeologist.

Generally speaking, coral doesn't like aluminum. The rate of coral encrustation on aluminum depends on a number of factors including depth, but it's slow.  I'm not aware of any studies.