chepar
Contributor
This topic has been broached in the past - but it was a while ago and we have a lot more members, so I thought that I would bring it up again for some new opinions. Additionally, the previous thread spun off into a spearfishing tangent, which kind of diluted the original thread topic.
How many of you take shells back with you from a dive? If you do, how do you tell if there's a critter residing in it?
I admit to being tempted on many an occasion to take a beautiful shell I see while diving - but for the life of me, I can't tell whether there is something residing in it or not, so I leave it alone. I figure as soon as you pick it up, if there's a critter in it, it will retreat back into the shell- and I don't have Xray vision to see inside. I would rather err on the side of caution than to take a shell with a living inhabitant in it.
However, I see people all the time coming up with shells, saying there's nothing in them - but I don't know how they can tell.
Now, I will admit to having taken an urchin "shell" - not really the shell, but what's left after an octopus has devoured the contents and all the spines have been broken off - obviously hollow and nothing inside. Finding intact ones are rare and I thought it was a cool find. BTW, before I get resoundingly spanked for this, it was not in any marine preservation/protected area.
How many of you take shells back with you from a dive? If you do, how do you tell if there's a critter residing in it?
I admit to being tempted on many an occasion to take a beautiful shell I see while diving - but for the life of me, I can't tell whether there is something residing in it or not, so I leave it alone. I figure as soon as you pick it up, if there's a critter in it, it will retreat back into the shell- and I don't have Xray vision to see inside. I would rather err on the side of caution than to take a shell with a living inhabitant in it.
However, I see people all the time coming up with shells, saying there's nothing in them - but I don't know how they can tell.
Now, I will admit to having taken an urchin "shell" - not really the shell, but what's left after an octopus has devoured the contents and all the spines have been broken off - obviously hollow and nothing inside. Finding intact ones are rare and I thought it was a cool find. BTW, before I get resoundingly spanked for this, it was not in any marine preservation/protected area.