>It would be nice if some of you shell lovers that don't say anything
>would send us a message once in a while.  I know how some of you feel
>when there are so many messages every evening or morning.  I think it
>would be great to hear from some new interested people.  I don't think
>Conch-L is just for a few people.  You "old timers" give these new guys
>and gals some room to voice their opinions, or ask their questions?
>Don't think your questions are dumb or stupid. None of us know it all.
>There are really a lot of people that are ready to answer you.  So talk
>to us!!
>Bob Lipe
 
Remember this from a few weeks back?  I've finally gotten up my courage to ask
a question.  We were on Sanibel from 12/26 - 1/3.  As others have reported,
the shelling was particularly productive.  The highlights for me were 5 alphabet
cones, 2 florida cones, a junonia (my 2nd in 14 years of Sanibel beachcombing,
and my personal largest sharks eye and auger.  In addition we found many banded
tulips, a great large true tulip, and beautiful lightning whelks of all sizes.
I also had fun putting together a color/design variation set of immature
fighting conks. (Sorry for not using scientific names, but I am writing this
at work.)
 
My question, though has to do with horse conchs.  Every day at low tide dozens
and dozens of live horse conchs would be revealed ranging from large crusty
beasts to inch long little guys.  The odd thing is that they were not spread
out evenly.  Rather they primarily appeared to be in clusters with an
occasional loner off by itself.  Maybe we've watched too much Disney which has
left us hopelessly anthropomorphic, but it was hard not to think of the
clusters as little families.  For me at least, this was the first time I've
been prompted to wonder about mollusck social behavior.  I know there's lots of
work on the social bahavior of mammals, but what of mollusks?  I would welcome
suggestions for readings on this topic
 
As an aside, in recent weeks there have been a number of observations about the
Sanibel live shelling ban.  I concur that it was difficult to take any shell
with an animal inside even if you knew it was dead or would soon be.  However,
I think erring on the conservative side is certainly better.  Where the ban
really made sense to me was in relation to all those horse conchs.  Without the
ban they would surely have been gathered up and killed in no time.  With the
ban, hundreds and hundreds of tourists looked and exclaimed, but otherwise left
the conchs alone.
 
Bill Badgley
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