Aloha!
I viewed the pix & it does have sporadic melanistic
dorsal blotching but I wouldn't call it a melanistic
cowry. It's just a dark dorsal colored Tiger. I've
seen & found Tigers colored like this through-out the
Pacific. It would be safe to say that the location
isn't a contested issue rather the monicker of being a
melanistic cowry is.

My guess is the ID label is correct in it's locality
but classifying it as a melanistic shell may be
stretching the description of the coloration. It's
still a nice shell & very colorful.
Mahalo!  CHRIS:)

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