A method for extracting living meiofauna from marine and brackish water mud is proposed and tested. Samples are fitted into tubes and covered with a 2 cm layer of clean coarse sand. Water of appropriate salinity is added until the sample is flooded and the sandy cover is just moist. Sample tubes are closed and stored in the dark. As the samples become anaerobic, the animals migrate upwards into the sandy layer. To extract them, the sandy cover is separated periodically and washed out by 10-fold shaking and rotating in a beaker. The supernatant is decanted through small funnels, and animals are retained on a 40 pm gauze. Total extraction of 1 sample takes about half an hour. This extraction procedure is compared to grain-by-grain investigation of the whole sample. Within the sites tested, Plathelminthes, Polychaeta, Oligochaeta, Copepoda, and Ostracoda were extracted quantitatively. Extraction of Nematoda and Halacarida was not always complete. In some cases, extraction even yielded significantly higher numbers of Oligochaeta and Plathelminthes than control sorting.