At 02:49 PM 1/12/98 -0300, you wrote:
>Kathleen,
>
>Just adding my two cents to the Wes message, I particularly prefer a hand
>rather than a headlight. You "loose" one hand but you have much more
>options on lighting a subject.
>
>Wes tells us about sea snakes being attracted by lights. In my case it was
>not as poisonous (sea snakes are as poisonous as Conus geographus, very
>curious animals, but no attacks have been reported) but thousands of sea
>wormsbeing attracted by the lights, during a night dive in the Bahamas.
>Even carrying the light in my hand, I had a dense cloud of worms
>surrounding my head and my regulator. We aborted our dive spiting worms and
>taking them out our ears and hairs. It was a night(mare) dive called "Worms
>- The Attack of the Tiny Monsters".
>
>Our divemaster told us that a way to avoid them is to bring the light (and
>the worms) close to a head coral and see how fast it would eat the worms,
>cleaning your way. Our next night dive was successful even with lots of
>worms. It was really amazing to see the head coral eating the worms. The
>head coral caught them with their extended polyps and brought the worms to
>them, exploding them while eating. This time the film title was "Worms -
>The Human Revenge"... By the end of our dive we heard a loud "blurp" and
>the only explanation that we found was that a head coral ate too much that
>night.    :-))))
>
>I'm telling you this story just because if you need to snorkel in a cloud
>of worms, you couldn't get rid of them with a headlight.
>
>Reinforcing what was already said, bring an extra light (two better than
>one) and leave a light on the beach.
>
>Good luck in your shell collecting and tell us how successful it was when
>back home.
>
>Cheers,
>
>Eduardo
>Brasilia, Brazil
>[log in to unmask]
>
>
>PS: I wish you don't have nightmares tonight
>
>
>
>
>
>De:   thorsson @ HITS.NET em 09/01/98 13:28 HST
>
>Favor Responder a [log in to unmask]
>
>Para: CONCH-L @ UGA.CC.UGA.EDU
>cc:    (bcc: Jose Eduardo de Alencar Moreira/Telebras)
>Assunto:  Shelling at night
>
>
>It is often much more productive to shell at night, particularly for
>sand dwellers and some cones.  In Samoa it was interesting that the sea
>snakes were very attracted to your light and with only 6 inches of water
>under you it is more interesting.  About the only way to get rid of them
>was to turn off the light.
>...
>
>If you are going far, getting back when a light fails (I had two failure
>on a Thailand trip) is also interesting.  The comment on carrying a
>spare is really very well advised.
>Aloha,
>Wes
>
I guess I ned to put in my two cents worth on night shelling.  In my years
of collecting on Okinawa, I can count the number of times I went in the
daytime on the fingers of one hand.  I was initiated into the hobby by Phil
Crandall when we went to Onna Flats about 10 pm and returned around six AM.
I collected 52 different species on that night and was firmly hooked as a
collector.  In the few times I went during the day, I found that the
critters were quite adept at hiding from the sun, but lights at night don't
seem to bother them.  Since I was basically a reef walker at low tides
(preferably minus), I found the Coleman propane lantern to be the best
light.  A spare tank of propane and a good cigarette lighter kept you in
good light for six hours or more.  As a matter of fact, during minus tides
on Bolo Point, you could almost read a newspaper from the light of
everyone's lanterns.  Very few reef walkers relied on flashlights. I might
also state that a can of propane can be very valuable if you forgot to bring
a spare.
 
Horatio