Iheya Island, Ryukyu Islands.
I lived for three years in a rural village in the northern part of Okinawa’s
main island as an English teacher.  Some friends brought me to meet an old
retired commercial spear fisherman and see his shell collection.  After
talking shells for a bit we became fast friends.  He showed me a cyp.
aurantium he had collected off Iheya Island, an outer island in the Ryukyu
chain.  He told the tale of finding it and getting arrested for diving
there.  Fishermen in Japan are in local unions and they can only fish their
own territory.  He and the boys had once snuck their boat over to Iheya.
Later I became friends with another commercial fisherman in my village.  He
had grown up on Iheya and later resettled on the main island.  He showed me
a cyp. aurantium he had collected in the Keramas, another island group.  I
told the story of the other fisherman’s Iheya golden.  He called a friend
back on Iheya who was a public official and set me up to meet him in the
harbor the next Saturday morning.  I backpacked my gear and on Saturday rode
the ferry from the main island out to Iheya.  Sure enough this gentleman was
waiting for me.  He took me on a tour of the island and then took me to the
one dive shop.  At that time in most of Okinawa divers couldn’t rent tanks
and shore dive (outside of the US bases).  They would have to take dive
tours.  The excuse was the liability, but I wonder if it wasn’t just to make
more money.
The dive shop owner thought I was crazy to come out to night dive his island
alone, but my contact had pull, so I got the tanks.  I told him where I
planned to dive and we were off through four-wheel drive trails.  I could
see the fellow was a bit concerned when he finally dropped me off at the
beach.  I told him I would sleep on the beach and see him in the morning.
I got a bonfire on the beach ready, set up my gear and waited for night.
After a beautiful sunset, I started the bonfire ablaze and swam out to sea.
  I didn’t strike gold, but it was a beautiful dive.   When I swam in, the
gentleman had brought his family back with him, all waiting to see the crazy
shell collector.  They insisted I stay the night at their home, so I blew
off the second dive.  The next morning I took the ferry ride back without an
aurantium.  Instead I have this golden memory.
Shea O'Neill
PacificNightDiver
Honolulu, HI

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