Shell collectors ?

[NorCalDM]

Very good story...but as machinist by trade (even though I no longer work as a machinist) you are using calipers to measure the shell, not micrometers. I hate correcting people but I always feel the need to when it comes to tools.

BTW, this is a micrometer, an outside mic to be precise. The also make inside mics to measure an ID rather than the OD and they also make depth mics for measuring bores,etc.

View attachment 411365

BTW the picture is of a Disk micrometer to be precise!

 

[Laurie S.]

I've been collecting, and buying, shells since I was a child. When I'm at my home in San Carlos, Mexico, as I am now, I'll be collecting to do double duty--ceviche and shells.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

There is always a larger pricklycock out there somewhere.

Is that some type of seashell?

 

[Sam Miller III]

Before she got her first underwater camera Merry collected and identified shells she found on the shore or empty underwater. She has books and a closet full of shells. One day we were diving on a local shipwreck where the sand was littered with Spiny Pricklycockle, Dallocardia quadragenaria shells. As we were about to begin our ascent I saw a shell in her hand. I looked down and saw one that was much larger. I handed it to her and she tossed her find back.

After we got home we told our friend Paul Kanner, a collector of shells worldwide about our find. He suggested we contact the Registry of World Record Size Shells. They asked for at least four photos with a micrometer measuring every part of the shell. The previous record was 150mm long. Mine was over 162mm. I presently still hold the record for largest Spiny Pricklycockle, Dallocardia quadragenaria. It's the only shell I've ever collected. Beginner's Luck.

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Good for you for posting about sea shells and Merry for such an magnificent find. World Record Sea Shell ! (WRSS) She is unique among divers and seasoned sea shell collectors in that she has a WRSS -Bravo!

I suspect if she continues to have such a sharp eye for Sea Shells she just might find a few more World Records

Some years ago around the late 1960s-good gosh 50 years ago - or more John Reseck, Jr, who wrote the early dive training manual "SCUBA Safe and Simple" (ISBN# 0-13 -796714-4)-and later was one of the first to kayak from San Diego to La Paz which was also chronicled in his book "We Survived Yesterday" (ISBN# 1-882180-18-6) Like so many of us of that pioneer era we had and were venturing into the unexplored certainly never dove wilds of Baja California. It was survival and high adventure into the unknown at its finest .......???? .

One such trip John noticed huge mussels growing on the rocks at a very isolated cove - he harvested several returned home. Much to his surprise like Merry he had serendipitously established a world record for the mussel.

In that era when we were all competing and establishing spear fishing records - some of which have never been broken - John stood out as the only one in the SoCal dive tribe who had a world record sea shell.

Merry is in good company !

SDM

 

[Wookie]

If I find something interesting that some octopus has sucked the guts out of, I might take it. I have 2 deer cowries. I would never kill an animal to take it's home, and such a conversation belongs in the Pub....

 

[DiverDownD3]

I don't typically collect shells, once I found a queen helmet and didn't realize until I got home that there was a baby octopus inside. Only found out because he was lying next to the shell when I left it out to dry. So I don't really bring home anything anymore where something could be hiding.

I do collect sharks teeth.

 

[Sam Miller III]

If I find something interesting that some octopus has sucked the guts out of, I might take it. I have 2 deer cowries. I would never kill an animal to take it's home, and such a conversation belongs in the Pub....

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You absconded with the future home of two Hermit crabs ----
Poor little ole homeless Hermit crabs...
sdm

 

[snowdog61]

I won't take shells that have have their original owners - period. Seeing baskets, upon baskets of shells of various types, dried starfish, seahorses etc in the shops just saddens me. AFA Non-OEM residents (hermit crabs), I'm not too concerned with evicting them - there seems to be millions of them but I won't take anything of size( yes, I'm a hypocrite but maybe just a semi one). If they've lived long enough to be able to inhabit a whelk or large helmet, they deserve it. That said, we do have a small tray of conch, tulips, helmets, cowries, etc on display with the largest shell still fitting in your hand. It's full so unless it's something special (and not inhabited), it's typically pointed out and left on the bottom. I'd be mortified if I found an octopus in a shell I had collected. Think that is the only seafood I have vowed never to knowingly eat again. After interacting with them, just can't do it.

 

[RyanT]

I'd be mortified if I found an octopus in a shell I had collected. Think that is the only seafood I have vowed never to knowingly eat again. After interacting with them, just can't do it.

Yes, they are incredibly smart animals!

 

[Wookie]

And tasty.