Most recently, Paul Monfils contributed this amusing anecdote:


This reminds me of a set of postcards a club member once brought to a =
meeting. There were four cards, each showing the exact same colorful =
array of shells. The four pictures were labeled, respectively, "COLORFUL =
SEASHELLS OF FLORIDA"; "COLORFUL SEASHELLS OF CAPE COD"; "COLORFUL =
SEASHELLS OF CALIFORNIA"; and "COLORFUL SEASHELLS OF HAWAII".  Every =
shell in the picture was of course from the Philippines, the typical =
shells sold in tourist shell baskets in all four of the named locations =
and many others.

Paul M.

Amusing, but not all that surprising.  At many of the popular ocean-side
tourist attractions in the Republic of Korea, one may purchase beautiful
seashells - mostly Chicoreus ramosus and perhaps some Cassis cornuta or
Cypraecassis rufa.  I have never seen any indigenous shells offered at
these sites.  On the other hand, I have never seen or heard any clear
misrepresentation that those were Korean shells.

When I first converted from collecting (450+) orchid plants to collecting
shells, I quickly asked many Koreans with whom I lived and worked where I
could get nice Korean shells, other than in my soup.  The universal
response was that there aren't any nice, collectible shells in Korean
waters, except at Jeju Island "perhaps."  Eventually I searched on-line
and began to find out the quite contrary truth.  My point is merely that
most Koreans still do not know what beautiful shells are available to them
in their own waters, although many of them have bought, at grossly marked-
up prices, some of the spectacular shells from the Philippines.  Even now,
when I show Korean co-workers some cleaned Ceratostoma burnetti,
Pteropurpura falcata, etc., they often accuse me of misrepresenting that
they are from Korea!

Chuck

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