Frank's Okinawa tale reminded me of several of mine.  I think my best is one
that is a repeat of one that I wrote many, many years ago for the Hawaiian
Shell News...back in the late 60's I was doing a deep water dive [50+ meters]
off Bolo Point, Okinawa and was doing a "just in case" decompression period
on a 6+ meter ledge where I could "shell" while decompressing.  Under a small
coral head, I spotted a large "Cyp. carneola", a shell that I had quick
collecting by then...how many specimens can you collect of one species?
Anyway, this one looked unusually pretty, so I decided one more couldn't
hurt.  I took my "finds" home, threw my goodie bag on the sink and asked my
wife to "fresh water soak" the shells for me, as I had to get ready to leave
for a trip to Sourth Korea in a few hours.  When I got back from Korea about
a week later, I looked over the shells that my wife had cleaned for me, among
them the "carneola"...the more I looked at this shell, the more it looked
unusual...I got my shell books out to see what was going on...I couldn't
believe my eyes...it wasn't a "carneola" at all...it was a Cypreae kuroharai
Kuroda & Habe, 1961...live taken in about 5 meters of water!!!!!   The book
said the shell was a very rare, deep water shell!  I sent the shell off to
Pat Burgess in Hawaii for confirmation...my ID was correct!  The only thing
that we could figure out, is that Okinawa had gone through a typhoon several
weeks earlier and the shell had been churned up from deep water and had found
a home in the shallower waters...in fact, that same dive, I had found a Cyp.
talpa in a small tidal pool on an exposed ledge I would use to walk to where
I went into the water for the deep water dive.  This shell had to have been
put there by the high waves of the typhoon, as this was not the normal
habitat for the species!   Anyway, to make a long story short...it always
pays to look twice!
Ed Schelling
Shalimar, Florida