> I found one young yako-gai in Onna-son off South side of Manzamo in 1999.
> I
> also found one young yako-gai off Ogimi-son the same year.  The shell's
> apex
> from Ogimi was painted red.  My student's father asked me to bring him any
> sazae and yako gai with red apex.  His name was Nobu(something, probably
> mitsu) Oshiro.  He worked for some fisheries that released the baby
> shells.
> I think he worked in Motobu.  His brother, Nobuhisa, was a locally famous
> uminchu who introduced me to shell collecting.  I have many golden
> memories
> from Uchina.

Perhaps we need some explanation or translations about your nice comments
for those viewers who are wondering what we are discussing.

Yako-gai is the giant green snail Turbo marmoratus. Sazae is another
turbinid
T. argyrostomus. Both are important targets for diver-fishermen in Okinawa.

There was a national government-sponsored project of stock-enhancement
of the green snail (and also trochus) and the Okinawa prefectural hatchery
at Motobu produced juveniles of both gastropods to release them in nature.

Nobu was one of the researchers in the hatchery laboratory. I believe he
has also very keen eyes on marine creatures like his uminchu (expert fisher)
brother. He helped one of my students who was looking for small octopuses
on the reef: we found several new species to be described (one of them
done).

Cheers,

Masashi Yamaguchi

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