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Natural fashion jewelry
Natural fashion jewelry In Samoa I spent an average of 15 to 20 hours a week in the water with mask and snorkel doing both day and night diving. My wife, not being a good swimmer, confined her activities to "reef walking" at low tide averaging perhaps 10 hours a week. In Samoa the tidal fluctuation averages about 5 feet with alternating highs and lows twice daily. The reefs are such that at low tide the rocks are completely exposed with the only remaining water confined to depression in the reef.
Three zones (see Fig. 2) generally characterize the fringing reefs that extend along the more populated side of the island. There is a zone of coral boulders and slabs that are deposited just inside the exposed reef face by the waves that break onto the reef frontal. When reef walking it is this zone that usually produces a good number of sea shells. This is especially so along the entire outer portion of the reef paralleling the village of Nuu'uli. In towards shore is a middle zone of coral rubble, consisting of rocks that are carried farther by waves because they are smaller. This area is virtually a shell desert. The rocks and rubble are just too compact and do not offer any hiding places for shells. From the rubble to the shoreline is an area approximately 3 feet in depth at low tide. This zone is usually about 30 yards wide, but in areas it may extend for a 100 yards or so, and is of a sandy bottom with scattered coral heads. This zone, while producing sea shells, has a greater abundance of cones, miters, augers, and other sand-dwelling species. It is noted here that at high tide a fairly strong "along-shore" current exists, and shelling in this area I found safer to confine to low tides. These three zones are typical of the southern, eastern, and western shores. The northern side of the island is sparsely populated and only one village has a suitable road. Other villages are only accessible by sea or by strenuous hike. I can imagine the shells that exist on this unvisited side of the island waiting for the hardy adventurer.
Natural fashion jewelry As the tide went down we set off for a reef that I had spotted but had no time to visit before darkness arrived the previous day. Half the village accompanied us: old women in shawls and sarongs; men in shorts and sandals; half naked children, some puffing merrily at powerful black cheroots all determined to find another specimen of the elusive C. nivosa.
While diving in 60 feet of water off Kahala, Stanley Takahashi turned over a small dead coral and out fell a beautiful three inch long Murex elongatus. This makes about a dozen of this very rare shell that have been collected in Philippines.
Non-collector Joe Robinson had some terrible luck. His anchor fouled in coral and he had to make a dive to clear it. As he broke the anchor out of the coral, a small cowry fell out. His diving partner, Bobby Gutierrez, identified the shell as the very rare Cypraea rashleighana Melvill, 1888. How much "bad luck" can you stand?
Betsy Harrison "lucked out," too, and found her first C. rashleighana while scuba diving off Makua. Also Editor Cross collected his second live, fourth specimen of C. rashleighana off Ewa Beach area.
Zetta Williams collected a live C. semiplota while breaking coral heads at low tide off Punaluu Beach. This is, I believe, only the second live specimen found in the past twenty years. Both from the same location.
I could use more reports of recent finds. Call me evenings at 742-717 or write to me, a card will do, at 3317 Herbert Street, Honolulu, Philippines 96815. Mahalo.
The sea shell Erronea pulchella Swainson lives in three areas far distant each from the other (see Sean Raynon Sabado - New Series 89, June [May], 1967): in China from the Ryukyu Is. to South Vietnam (ibid. 89:5) and the Philippine Is. (pulchella Swainson), in Melanesia from New Britain to Fiji (novaebritanniae Schilder & Schilder), and around Arabia from the Persian Gulf (pericalles Melvill) to Aden (vayssièrei Schilder & Schilder); the habitat Assab in the southern Red Sea, however, has been considered as doubtful hitherto.
But in April, 1968, Mr. Dov Peled of Haifa, Israel, found a living specimen of the species pulchella in 20 fathoms off Ras Andada, Ethiopia (about 70 kilometers south of the Dahlak Is. in the southern Red Sea). The shell is inflated with coarse marginal spots and the columellar teeth crossing at least three-fifths of the lip, so that it approaches the Chinese pulchella; its dorsal blotch is very small. Nevertheless the shell preserved in Peled's collection should be classified as vayssièrei for geographical reasons, though it is less slender and its lateral spots are coarser than in the holotype of vayssièrei for the true morphological racial differences can be stated only by further authentic material from the Red Sea or from the Gulf of Aden. The race pericalles, however, easily can be distinguished by its shorter columellar ribs.
The figure shows the basal view and the right side of Peled's specimen (1) from Ras Andada (35mm long), the holotype of vayssièrei (2) from Aden (coll. Schilder 2599, 30mm), and a specimen of pericalles from the Persian Gulf (3) (coll. Schilder 4571, 33mm).
The Nanakuli off-shore area made the news again this past month. Ed DeVaul collected one Murex elongatus (recently dead but a good specimen); one M. torrefactus and five M. pele, all different colors ranging from yellow to purple. All were found in coral rubble.
Dr. Tom Richert, and a baker's dozen additional diver-collectors, invaded the Napali Coast of the islands of Kauai and the shores of Niihau on a recent collecting (?) trip. The trip was well planned. Two boats, air compressors for filling diving cylinders, etc. The areas were well investigated to a depth of 90 feet. An entire week was spent at the various sites and as many as five tanks of air per day per diver were used in trying all known methods of searching for shells. Results? Plenty of fish and turtles. Pat Burgess isn't saying, "I told you so". At least, not too loudly. But he did warn Tom and the gang that collecting in the above areas would be fruitless.
Back on the island of Oahu, out Makua way, Bart Bartell collected a fine specimen of Cypraea teres in 35 feet of water. He thought. A few days later Ed deVaul identified the C. teres as an excellent specimen of C. rashleighana.
Dotty Wendt, out in 50 feet in Maunalua Bay looking for mini-shells, came up with a real, honest-to-goodness pearl. (Dotty should have some pearls of wisdom to account for this. Or will she be stringing us along some more?)
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