That's what I thought.  The Strombus peruvianus was found
by Gene Everson (whose feelings about reporting this are
probably the same as for a UFO abduction) at scuba depth
off the dropoff north of Mounu Island, way down south of the
Vava'u group.  There is a very nice lady who runs a lodge of
sorts on the island (and discourages live collecting) who said
she has seen two or three others like it that have come from
there.  She is not ignorant about shells, though she is not a
scientific collector.  Chances are pretty good that she could
tell a Strombus latissimus or thersites from S. peruvianus.
There were seven people who saw the shell with the live crab
in it (though I did accuse Gene of bringing the shell from
Louisville and spending his dive time looking for a suitable
hermit crab to stuff in it!).

I found the Struthiolaria above the high tide line in the muddy,
rocky area below the Paradise Hotel, which is an area of the
harbor where many of the sailboats anchor.  It wasn't a perfect
shell, in fact it was rather ugly, with rusty mud stains and a
couple of holes in it.  It is a lot easier to envision someone
throwing this shell into the harbor from one of the boats than
a Strombus peruvianus.  I have never seen non-Tongan shells
for sale in Vava'u, so I doubt seriously that they were inten-
tionally "salted."

Cheers,



Don
----------
> From: Thomas E. Eichhorst <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: More Conch-L Images
> Date: Wednesday, February 02, 2000 6:05 AM
>
> Hey Don,
>
> A near-world-record Strombus peruvianus, and a Struthiolaria papulosus in
> Tonga!!  And to think we have been complaining about data from the
> Philippines....  You realize that years and years from now, someone will buy
> a collection and it will have these two shells in it.  They will immediately
> dismiss the data slips as inaccurate.
>
> So is there any activity there that might possibly explain the salting of
> foreign shells?  I understand a Philippine shell showing up in Florida as
> tons are shipped there every year.  But a shell from the west coast of South
> America or one from New Zealand -- in Tonga?  Something like coal to
> Newcastle?
>
> Tom Eichhorst in New Mexico, USA