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