-----Original Message-----
From: Wesley M. Thorsson <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tuesday, March 03, 1998 1:27 PM
Subject: Invisibility
 
 
>Ross Fans:
>
>I am not old man on the hill, but old enough at 75 to have probably
>given up diving, but not snorkeling and photography after my heart
>incidents this year.
>
>When I was in high school in Long Island, N.Y. we went to the beach
>every day and noted what was new on the beach - mostly crabs, though my
>main hobby was collecting spiders an identifying them and bird eggs at
>the New York City Museum.  We didn't have goggles for swiming, but used
>naked eyes and did see some things in the water.  If memory is correct,
>a sea horse was one.
>
>When we moved to Hawaii in 1952, I took up snorkeling, and shortly my
>wife and I took a diving course at the YMCA.  This greatly improved my
>shell collecting.  At the time, diving was fairly new for the general
>public and new shells were being found regularly, which is always the
>high point in collecting.  One of my friends found a Cypraea
>rashleighana, apparantly the first live specimen one week, so the next
>week I managed to duplicate the feat.  We were regularly finding Cypraea
>tessellata, but Dr. Burgess and Cliff Weaver hadn't found live ones yet,
>and asked to come out with our group.  They did, and found their C.
>tessellata.  When Cliff Weaver did at about 40 feet, I heard wooping,
>and noted him rising to the surface, wooping all the way.  Finding Cyp.
>cheninsis in Hawaii at that time was rare.  I found my first and showed
>it to my dive buddy of 40+years (counting time till he moved to Las
>Vegas later)and he moved over 4 feet and found the mate.
>
>Things come in cycles many times.  I observed, for example, that only a
>hand full of Cyp. rashleighana were found live in the 10 years after my
>find.  Then in the 1970's, they were to be found around the Island, and
>I found them in many different locations, though the great majority in
>Haleiwa area, where most Cypraea are smaller.  At the same time the
>other red-animal Cypraea also bloomed as well as Cypraea granulata. Then
>after several years, they went to scarce or rare again.  However, while
>Cypraea gaskoini became more scarce in most places, at another place,
>they became peaked in population.  The Cyp. rashleighana probably are
>rare because they lay eggs too late in the fall when the big wave come
>up and make their successful hatching and growth unlikely.
>
>Of course, the great changes came with the popular use of airplanes to
>reach Hawaii.  Mostly retired people came as tourists before that.  Then
>the number of people on beaches changed from a handfull to hoards.  This
>undoubtedly lead to the great decrease in flashy, large shells such as
>Cypraea tigris (usually 4 inches +), but not much change in the small,
>brown shells.
>
>The advent of computers should not be forgotten as of importance to the
>hobby. We have seen computer use and capability grow very rapidly since
>1978 when I got my first Apple II, and wrote all my own programs. 5 mb
>was a very large hard disk when they came out.  Now I have a large
>number of 1 gigabyte disks backing up my multigigabyte hard disks.  Not
>to mention CD recordable disks.
>
>I have seen a great number of shell clubs come and go.  The Hawaiian
>Malacological Society has stayed on the scene, though membership and
>distribution of its magazine HSN reached 1696 and now has dropped to 90
>(in HMS Bulletin form).
>
>Change keeps on happening
>
>Wes
>Hi Wes;
What a great message and recap of your years of shelling in Hawaii.  I had a
great three years there starting in 1966 and was privileged to find the
elusive Cyp. chinesis at Ft Kam reef in 3 feet of water and my friend Al Kim
found one there also. Never found a rash but found many teres which looked
several species they were so fat and large.  Always found them in pairs
usually a large on and a small one and speculated that the large on probably
laid the eggs and the small one, maybe the male fertilized them.  In anycase
wanted to thank you for the message and your work with HWS which has done so
much for shell collecting.
Harry