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 _________________________________________________________________ Don’t just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search! http://search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [log in to unmask] - a forum for informal discussions on molluscs To leave this list, click on the following web link: http://listserv.uga.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=conch-l&A=1 Type your email address and name in the appropriate box and click leave the list. ----------------------------------------------------------------------