> My wife's self collected story, and she has many, is when we were on a night
> reef walk, on a minus tide at a place called Bolo flats on Okinawa. Half way
> into the walk, my wife kind of went off on her own, not out of sight,
just by
> herself. Next thing we all heard this tremendous scream and went running
over
> to where she was in a tidal pool that was about 2 or 3 feet deep. There she
> was hold a live Charonia tritonis about 18 to 20 inches long and waking
> everyone in the area. Horatio Buck, who was with us at the time, said she
had
> to wake half of Okinawa. That is one shell that she will never let go.

Yes, there used to be many C. tritonis at Bolo, as well as further up the
coast at Onna, Seragaki, Sesoko and so on. I haven't seen one for years,
and now there are crown-of-thorns starfish so thick in places one daren't
walk in the shallow water. Until the Japanese reluctantly embraced the
Washington treaty, Charonia tritonis was stripped out of the Okinawa
islands for tourist souvenirs. By the time anyone noticed, most of them had
gone.
I have seen the odd one in the Amami islands, to the north of Okinawa, but
they aren't common there either.