Shell collectors ?

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I went through my shell collecting phase as a kid. I grew up in the Ocean State (Rhode Island), and before the age of ten, I knew the common name of every shell on the beach. Knobbed whelk, slipper shell, blue mussel, quahog, on and on. At one time I may have had a dried starfish, but only if it was already dead and dried when I found it; if I saw the tube feet wiggling, I tossed it back in the water. I just never was able to kill an animal for such a trivial reason as to admire its shell. It kinda bothered when one of the shell books I borrowed from the library had a section on collecting and killing live shells. That had never occurred to me before.

At some point I went vegetarian.

Now I only collect shells for two reasons: if I have some scientific question about a given species, or if it is an unusually large or rare shell. In the first category, I have a substantial collection of Asiatic freshwater clam shells from various places I have traveled, as I investigated their size range and variation. In the second category, I have an Atlantic triton, whichever species of helmet shell is common in the Greater Antilles, and a flamingo tongue. In no case do I collect a live one, whether occupied by the original mollusk or by a crustacean.
Do you only collect empty ones when you have that scientific question or it's unusually large or rare? How easy is it to find good dead specimens? Do you look for them on scuba or beach combing or both?
Of course you know that I don't consider admiring a shell a trivial reason for killing the animal, and that I and serious shell collectors don't consider it a childhood phase like guitar lessons for 3 months. But, no need for us to argue on these things as it's all been done to death before.
 
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