Cruise no. 126 of the Albatross III was planned and conducted to gather information about the distribution of fishes across the Continental Shelf from Nantucket Shoals to Cape Hatteras during the late winter period when water temperatures generally are at their minimum. The shelf here has a general hydrographic similarity from north to south, well described by Bigelow (1933), that makes it a particularly worthwhile area in which to study the relation of fish distribution to water temperature, depth, and other factors of the environment. Since the fish of this portion of the shelf support several different, relatively important food and industrial fisheries, as well as an intensive marine sport fishery. Cruise no. 126 served to provide data valuable to several research programs.

The culmination of a ten-year study, Bivalve Seashells of Western North America treats all bivalve mollusks living from northern Baja California, Mexico to Arctic Alaska. A total of 472 species are described and illustrated with detailed photographs and drawings. All habitats in the region are included from the intertidal splash zone to the abyssal depths of the ocean basins. The book has over 4,800 complete bibliographic references to the bivalves, including citations on the biology, physiology, ecology, and taxonomy of this commercially and biologically important group. Character tables and dichotomous keys assist the reader in identification. Also included in the 764 page book is an illustrated key to the superfamiles of the region, and a complete glossary.

This book identifies all valid species belonging to the superfamily Mactroidea living in American waters, distributed across fourteen biogeographical provinces. It also provides an updated classification of the widely occurring Mactroidea superfamily, which comprises eight subfamilies grouped into four families: Mactridae (Lamarck, 1809); Anatinellidae (Deshayes, J.Gray 1853); Cardiliidae (Fischer, 1887) and Mesodesmatidae (J. Gray, 1840). The species included in this superfamily are known to have existed in North America since the Early Cretaceous.