Dear James;
        It is my understanding that this species is not as endangered as many
other species, but was protected in part because it had become so famous
that people were cutting down trees just to collect them for tourists!!
It is illegal to send such species across national borders, but within a
country they can travel with impunity, although i don't know if it is
legal to actually sell them (any comments on this??).  You should have
no trouble obtaining one in good time, since they come up when old
collections are sold, or when people "trim" their shell assemblages.

        I would urge Conchlers to be careful when chosing whom to "filter out":
quite a few people (myself included:--}) occasionally post things they
regret, or that some may not wish to read, but most of them also post a
lot of useful, on-topic material as well: seems a shame to throw the
good out with the bad!!  Unless one has a slow modem or a very low
tolerance for things one would rather not see, i would suggest that it
only takes a couple of seconds to recieve, open and delete an unwanted
message.  I suspect i am being filtered by a good number of listers,
because of my Conservation messages and such - those doing so will not
see this of course, but - heck why am i rambling on?: there's actual
work to do!

From the tail of the Hurricane,
Ross.