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+--- Thread: Caribbean cones (/showthread.php?tid=36)
Caribbean cones - karen vanderven - 08-15-2006
Dear David,
I am a new member of your Shell Forum, and have enjoyed it and seeing you on Conch-L.
I am writing to ask your advice and help on behalf of myself and several other shellers.
Several years ago I read with great interest an account you wrote of a diving trip you
took to the Grenadines and have looked this up again, appreciating the text and the
photos.
A small group of us (4) who are divers (we have dived together on other trips in the
Bahamas and Venezuela) , love cones, would like to arrange a dive trip for 2007 Â to
the Caribbean to the areas such as the Grenadines and Martinique where we
might find such species as C. cedonulli, Â C. dominicanus, and C. pseudoaurantius.
Might you be able to give any advice and suggestions as to how such a dive trip
might be arranged and any contact for a dive operator that would accept a
shell oriented dive trip ? Â Is this something that would interest you as well, Â if the
trip  could be arranged ?
Many thanks for any help you can give.
Karen
(Karen VanderVen)
<!-- e --><a href="mailto:kvander@pitt.edu">kvander@pitt.edu</a><!-- e -->
Caribbean cones - david touitou - 08-16-2006
Dear Karen,
I have been there two times yet in 2000-2002 while I was living in Martinique. Both were NOT shell trips and I was the only collector and diver on board, meaning that I had to rent 2-3 tanks and deal with them for the 10 days trips... By the way I gathered a lot of informations on the net and knew some info. about cone habitats. I managed to get my hands on live <i>Conus dominicanus</i> (night), live and fresh dead<i> Conus pseudoaurantius </i>(day), beached Conus<i> beddomei/couderti</i>?, <i>C. granulatus </i>beached and <i>C. ermineus </i>live (night).
<u>Unfortunately</u> I did scuba 3 times in St Vincent but did not find any <i>C. cedonulli</i>.
You may have a look to one of my articles :
<a href="http://www.seashell-collector.com/articles/2005/grenadines/Grenadinesbis.htm" target="_blank"><!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.seashell-collector.com/articles/2005/grenadines/Grenadinesbis.htm">http://www.seashell-collector.com/artic ... nesbis.htm</a><!-- m --></a>
<u>Here are informations you have to know :</u>
- <i>Conus cedonulli </i>and <i>dominicanus</i> feeds on fire worms and live burried in the Sand during the day time. They may be found at night on the sand, rubble or grass fields. They are not coral related shells.
- Depth may be from shallow water to 25/30 meters usually, and you will have to scuba at night.
I found my <i>dominicanus</i>, in 6 meters, 12 meters, 18 and 19 meters crawling on the sand with grass.
- I did not find any special "hot spot" though. My advice : when you arrive in a bay, look during the day time for sand/grass areas at depth from 6 to 20 meters and scuba there at night. Look carefully at the border of grass fields, <i>dominicanus</i> seem to prefer the borders of the grass fields.
Hope this first post will help you.
Concerning the ship and company I have to info.
Feel free to ask me more,
sincerely,
David
by the way shelling there is quite fantastic and these shells are part of my favourites...
<img src="http://www.seashell-collector.com/collection/cone%20caraibes/dominicanus525.jpg" alt="http://www.seashell-collector.com/collection/cone%20caraibes/dominicanus525.jpg" style="border:0" />
<img src="http://www.seashell-collector.com/collection/cone%20caraibes/dominicanus491.jpg" alt="http://www.seashell-collector.com/collection/cone%20caraibes/dominicanus491.jpg" style="border:0" />  <span class="petit">--Last edited by David Touitou  on 2006-08-16 07:27:50 --</span>
Caribbean cones - karen vanderven - 08-16-2006
Dear David,
Thank you so much for such a full reply and great information on finding
proper habitat to search for these cones.
Two further questions for all readers; any suggestions and information would
be greatly appreciated:
* What areas in the Grenadines permit (or do not prohibit) collecting ?
* What dive operators or other boat sources might be available that would
support 'small shell' collecting by a small group ?
Many thanks,
Karen
Caribbean cones - david touitou - 08-17-2006
Dear Karen,
Well, I think that it's not permitted to hunt for shells there, but I am not sure. On some islands it is not allowed to scuba without a national underwater guard that you have to pay for each dive a lot of money (like St Lucia).
I have really no idea of scuba centers there I did it by myself both times with tanks on board... I dove only at night though and one tank usually can deal with 2-3 dives at deaph from 8 to 30 meters for 50 minutes each (depending of your skills and air consommation of course), I rent 3 tanks and managed to do enough dives but a compressor on board would have been the best way !
Bye
DAVID
Caribbean cones - karen vanderven - 08-25-2006
Dear David,
Thank you for this helpful response although sadly it doesn't sound too promising ! Â Anyone else have
any comments ?
Karen
Caribbean cones - david touitou - 06-09-2009
hello,
I never collected shells in the US sorry... Â <img src="images/smiley/smile.gif" alt="" border="0" />
Caribbean cones - dave r - 06-09-2009
Sorry Rielle but cone shells do not live that far North, the nearest to you would be Southern California and even then there is only one species there.
Dave