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Black agate
Black agate Jeddah, the largest seaport on the west coast of the Arabian Peninsula, is our main base of operations. Most of our stations, north and south of Jeddah (or Jidda in some geography books), are virgin collecting grounds, and we are constantly adding new locations to our list. Ken and I keep our favorite spots secret from all but the most conservation-minded sea shell collectors.
Our expeditions, as a rule, start early in the morning. The terrain is so rough and most shore locations are so inaccessible that only a four-wheel-drive vehicle can be used.
The trip I am reporting went southward from Jeddah about 120 kilometers to a point where the outer reef comes within 100 meters of the shore. The ride was far from pleasant. Dust, dirt, perspiration and humidity caused great discomfort. After almost three and a half hours of bouncing we finally reached Station 12, our destination, where we checked into the nearby coast guard station to show our permits and to explain our activities. In Saudi Arabia, where all activities along the coast are controlled, each person is required to have a permit to swim, shell or do anything of that sort along the shore.
Ken and I are experienced SCUBA divers, but prefer to do our collecting with only snorkel, face mask and fins. Most sea shells here can be found in one to 20 feet of water while snorkeling. Our gear includes a crowbar, knife, and large plastic dishpan inside a truck inner tube, to hold jars, sneakers, plastic bags and shells.
If sharks become too aggressive, as they sometimes do, we climb right into the dishpan! Sharks and barracuda are numerous here, and both are unpredictable.
On the present trip, the excitement started early, when Ken turned over a small rock in two feet of water and produced a beautiful Cypraea macandrewi. I am sure the whites of my eyes matched the white of his beaming smile. We must have spent half an hour examining the sea shell – the first live C. macandrewi either of us had ever seen. Heartbreak followed. At the end of the day, the C. macandrewi had disappeared. I still can picture Ken searching every container over and over, even sifting the sand at the bottom, to no avail
Black agate Surface winds are predominantly from the south, south-east and east with currents setting predominantly north except in December, January, and February when they are usually variable or from the north. Probably more important in defining the shells distribution are water temperature and salinity. Mean sea surface temperatures are about the same in each area for any given time of the year and range from the upper-seventies to high-eighties. Salinity in the three comparative areas is fairly constant at 37 to 40 parts per thousands. (See chart on page 5. [Chart omitted.])
This probably limits the range of the species to some extent as, for example, in the far northern part of the Red Sea near the Suez Canal, water temperature ranges from the low sixties to about 80 maximum. Salinity remains high at about 41 parts per thousand.
Still other interesting aspects of the three localities are: all localities are comparatively far removed and protected from the abyssal zones of the seas (depths to as much as 16,000 feet) that surround the Arabian Peninsula including very deep water in the Red Sea; the land masses surrounding the three localities are an desert regions with little if any rainfall or run-off of fresh water into the sea.
Specifically, the Port Sudan area (1) is characterized by a fringing reef immediately along the coast line, the barrier reef about one mile offshore, and isolated coral atolls outside the barrier reef. Tides in this area are hardly perceptible with a range of only 0.1 feet and a seasonal change of water level of about 3 feet due to barometric pressure. The collecting locality of Al Masirah (3) was probably in the channel between the island and the Arabian Peninsula. This is a very remote area but frequented occasionally by fishermen while the seaward side of the island, open to the vast expanse of the Arabian Sea, is subjected to heavy swells even in calm weather and is almost never visited, a wreck on the rocky shore attesting to the potential hazards of the place. The channel between Al Masirah and the mainland is shallow and filled with coral reefs, islets, and submerged rocky areas. The Hormuz Straight area (2) is also characterized by offshore coral reefs and atolls with considerable shallow water and protected from the open sea and deep water environment by both barrier and fringing reefs.
Rejected localities have opposite characteristics. The coast of Aden, (4) including the Port of Aden, are predominately rocky, steep-to [?] with sandy bottom and little if any coral except, in a few places, narrow coral fringing reefs. Aden is primarily a transshipment port through which a great many commodities flow. Mocha, (5) from which nine specimens of C. teulerei have been reported, is a small sea port just north of the entrance to the Red Sea. It is a trading port and the shells might easily have been brought to the port from other areas by fishermen or traders. However, the off-shore characteristics are such that C. teulerei might possibly be collected there since many coral reefs and shoals are found out to about 3 miles from shore.
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