I Am Blogie

We’ve got to stop making excuses for them, that these islanders are simply trying to make a living. And we’ve got to stop thinking that one small purchase wouldn’t make any difference. The trade of sea shells is illegal for a very good reason: it’s there for the conservation of our fragile marine ecosystem.

The shell in these pictures is an immature Giant Helmet Shell (Cassis cornuta), still very young and a long way to go before it would’ve reached maturity. I have a photo of a full-grown adult, which I saw at a depth of around 80 feet [click here to view]. It was a magnificent creature!

Giant helmet shell

‘It’s a lovely collectible, a perfect souvenir from the sea.’ Believe me, it’s so much more beautiful alive and in the water — where it belongs!

These mollusks used to be plentiful in these parts. Now, it’s a rare treat for us divers to see them in their natural habitat. Who knows what kind of damage poachers are doing to our marine biodiversity as the shell population steadily decreases? If we keep buying these shells — the skeletons of underwater creatures — we perpetrate the crime: we become part of the problem facing the marine environment.

Crown-of-thorns

Another shell that’s been nearly wiped out from the waters around Samal is the Giant Triton (Charonia tritonis). This dramatic drop in population, due to overfishing, is one of the causes of the sharp increase in Crown-of-Thorns Sea Star (Acanthaster planci) numbers. These voracious sea stars devour coral polyps like crazy and can decimate entire colonies in a matter of days. Crown-of-thorns are aggressively predated on by the triton, but with so little of the latter left, divers have been reporting of “COTS infestations” at an alarming rate.

I haven’t heard of any method of encouraging triton population to surge back. But what I do know is that we should try our darnedest best to keep what’s left alive.

So, please, don’t buy sea shells.