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Philippine shellcraft
Philippine shellcraft The presence in Reunión and Mauritius of C. contaminata is not so surprising as that of C. mariae and C. beckii, since C. contaminata's range is known to include the Indian Ocean from Ceylon to Zanzibar and East Africa.
When questioned about this reported extension of the known range of the three sea shells, Dr. C. M. Burgess, author of The Living sea shells commented: "I believe that the collection of these sea shells in such numbers and under the given circumstances is positive evidence that they exist there in the living state."
Among the many Caribbean shells which I collected at Curaçao is the striking species Strombus gallus Linné, the Rooster Conch. During an eight month stay over there, I only collected seven live specimens at depths varying from four to fifteen feet. Five of them were found between turtle grass, one in sand and one was crawling over old tree leaves, which were covering the bottom over quite an extensive area.
The shell has an average length of five inches, is solid and has blunt spines at the shoulder of the last whorl. Whorls nine to ten, that increase regularly in size. The outer lip is extended at the top into a narrow wing which is longer than the spire. The spiral sculpture consists of a number of ridges on the body whorl, which start as small lirae on the whorls of the spire. These conches occur in different colors, but the aperture is always white.
It is my good fortune to have all these varieties in my collection; a wonderful view to see brown, yellow, purple and red specimens on display. I have always thought that this conch was rather rare and the fact of finding seven shells in an eight month period will underline that. However, numerous dead shells or broken ones, of which the soft parts were eaten by octopus, make me suspect that this shell is more common in deeper water.
Philippine shellcraft Russ and Fran Wright found their second Bursa bufonia and Umbraculum sinicum in less than 10 feet of water without scuba.
"Ernie, Ernie, come quick and get a picture of this! " It was my good friend Dr. Wataru Sutow from Houston, Texas, playing with what looked to me like an over-active "snail."
To humor him I took several close-up shots of the animal with its eye stalks protruding, turning itself, over, etc. I learned later that these were probably the only photographs ever taken of a living Strombus taurus. Only two had been known to exist in 1954. To the native Marshallese they are known as Aurak.
I had spent many years in Florida where I had the perfect opportunity to develop an interest in conchology, but only helped my son pick up a few beach specimens. However, when Wat showed so much enthusiasm over this "snail", I decided to take four of these animals back to my son.
This was during my first trip to Rongelap in the Marshall Islands, in 1963. During the atomic bomb test on Bikini in 1964 the wind had suddenly changed and accidentally exposed twenty-three Japanese fishermen and the population of Rongelap, some ninety miles away, to radiation fall-out. An AEC medical team has examined both the exposed group and a control group on Rongelap each year since. I have accompanied them, doing the photography, x-ray work and cooking for some fifteen men for three weeks.
The following summer we carried two of the shells to the "Shell Factory" to see if we could trade. We came out with two sacks of shells. Wat had led me to the breeding grounds of the Strombus taurus. Now I was "hooked." I started collecting and trading in real earnest. Each year Wat and I organized an Aurak hunt, to what is now called Libby and Sutow Islands by the natives of the Rongelap Atoll.
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