In the 1970s, shell hunters in the Philippines discovered tangle-netting,
Conus Gloriamaris was 'rediscovered' and huge fortunes were made, before,
one by one, rare shell prices collapsed as more were found.

Here's the story of just one of those super-rare shells:

Conus pergrandis
- listed in the 'special pages' by Springsteen and Leobrera (Shell of the
Philippines - 1986)
- listed as 'Western Pacific. Deep water. Rare (Compendium of Seashells
Abbott & Dance 1982)
- listed as- Probably quite widely distributed in deep waters of the
Western Pacific - New Britain, Japan, Taiwan, and Queensland, Australia,
but maybe it is just a senile version of a different small cone (Cone
Shells - Walls c 1980?)

Even very bad specimens fetched $500 or so, because the shells were ugly,
but very, very rare.

The someone discovered one near Aliguay Island, the Philippines, in the
late '90s, on a shallowish bit of sea between the very deep Bohol Sea and
the China Sea to the West (just north of Dipolog and Dapitan in Mindanao).

He sold his shell for quite a reasonable sum, and within weeks, there were
20 more boats hunting for Conus pergrandis, all run by the 'usual
suspects' from Punta Engano, Mactan Island, opposite Cebu City.

But the sea bottom near Aliguay Island is mostly unrelieved mud, so
instead of using tangle nets, they used primitive trawls, and scraped the
sea floor clean.

They found a lot of Conus pergrandis, and by the way, a few other rare
cones (chiangi, kimioi, etc) and a whole lot of new turrids, but there's
not a lot left of that sea floor any more.

A naturally growth-damaged Conus pergrandis would fetch about $500 just a
few years ago.

Today, "Conus Pergrandis 105.43 mm Fine" is being offered on EBay for
BuyNow US $14.99

regards

Richard Parker
Siargao Island, The Philippines.

My website at www.coconutstudio.com is about the island and its people,
coastal early humans, fishing, coconuts, bananas and whatever took my
fancy at the time.

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