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Polished shells
Polished shells Recently a colleague and I, from the University of Florida, spent a week on Bimini doing research on immunity of lemon and nurse sharks. When time permitted we jumped in a boat and did some fishing and shelling just a short distance from where we worked at the Lerner Marine Laboratory. My shelling time was very limited and thus I am by no means an expert on the shells of this Island. However, I can't resist telling of the fantastic shelling I found there at a spot picked completely at random. The depth of water ranged from 2 to 15 feet. In three-quarters of an hour I had about ten nice size Strombus gigas (Queen conch), ten S. costatus (Milk conch), two S. raninus (Hawk-winged conch) and two as yet unidentified shells. Naturally all but the most perfect specimens were put back.
As we were getting ready to return to shore a "Conch Fisherman" pulled alongside with his "boat load" of S. gigas (See below). These were destined to become conch chowder or conch fritters, both dishes of which are delicious. If you are ever on Bimini and would like to try some conch be sure to stop at Jimmy Pitts' place called "The Island Woman". He will serve you conch as it should be served.
The few species of shells I collected on the one short outing are certainly not the only types found on Bimini and you can be sure that as soon as possible I'll be back to chase down the other conch, helmets, Terebra, etc.
I would like to take this opportunity to send my sincere Alohas to my former Philippines shell-collecting buddies: Helen and Don Hemmes and to Lyman Higa, a really great guy (Amen brudda, ED.)
Having entered upon the hobby of malacology rather late in life I may be reporting an incident which is of common knowledge to all you old-timers. Nevertheless, it was of unusual interest to me, so I will relate the tale here.
A recent shelling expedition to Onekahaka Beach in Hilo turned up, among other things, 4 very nice specimens of Conus textile Linnaeus, plus a couple of the very common (live) Strombus maculatus Nuttall.
After collecting, I usually place all shells into a rather large container of sea water so that I may observe them when they decide to come out of their shells. By the time I had arrived home most were actively poking about. One Strombus maculatus came upon the siphon of the Conus textile and immediately went into violent convolutions, writhing and twisting, and using his operculum as a foot to propel himself. At first I thought he had been stung and was in his death throes, but when he reached the other side of the container he acted in a normal way, and was very obviously still alive. Very shortly thereafter, the identical thing happened with another cone and another Strombus. This time, I was aware that the Strombus was using the operculum as a means to get the heck out of there as fast as possible. It was somewhat reminiscent of seeing photographs and movies of the frantic efforts the scallops make when they are exposed to a star fish.
To me, this was a discovery that the operculum doesn't merely serve to close off the aperture of this particular shell (and I'm wondering if many others might not fall into this category) but also serves as a means of vigorous propulsion to get out of harm's way.
Thank you for your excellent bulletins. I look forward to reading them each month and have obtained some excellent information, plus some particularly interesting books recommended from your lists.
Polished shells The day was perfect, sunny and warm. The water was perfect – very calm and smooth, with a low tide of 0.8 ft making for an uncommonly easy access to the deep waters off Bolo Point, Okinawa (East China Sea). After working the medium depth area of 70 to 80 ft for a while, my diving partner, Phil Whitelock and I dropped down to the deeper waters of 115 to 125 ft. Then, while combing the sand and broken coral at the base of a sheer vertical cliff, I caught a glimpse of gold in the sand. It was a beautiful small sea shell of a bright, golden hue - dead, but obviously fresh dead. At the time, I didn't know what I had found; but I knew I didn't have one in my collection and couldn't recall seeing one in any of the local collections I was familiar with. [photos - uncredited]
After several more minutes of vain searching of the sand for more, I gave up and started a gradual accent up the wall of the underwater canyon I was in. Then, I saw another flash of gold, this time in a small crack in the wall. It was another "golden" sea shell – this time, alive. In the same crack with it was a live juvenile. Although I can't be positive at this time, I do feel that the juvenile is the same as it's "crack-mate."
When Phil and I compared "finds" back at our car, we discovered that he had also found one of the "golden" sea shells – alive. Once back at home with our reference books, we found our "golden" sea shells to be "Erosaria cernica ogasawarensis" (Schilder, 1944), shown above. Crawford N. Cate writes in his Length Width Height Lip
Teeth Col.
Teeth
[in mm.]
25.1 17.9 14.0 21 16 largest mature shell
25.0 16.5 13.8 18 15
24.0 18.0 13.8 18 16
23.4 15.5 13.0 18 17
22.5 16.6 12.0 18 18
22.4 16.8 12.2 19 17
20.3 14.9 11.1 19 18 smallest mature shell
18.0 11.8 9.5 14 14 juvenile (?)
"sea shells of the Ryukyu Islands" in Vol. 10 - No. 1, page 31 of The Veliger, that this sea shell can be considered very rare for Okinawa. At that time, only one had been found, and that had been found by Bernice Albert on April 7, 1966.
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