On eBay Now...Cypraea helvola hawaiiensis #7 22.7mm EXQUISITE BEAUTY from Hawaii For Sale
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Cypraea helvola hawaiiensis #7 22.7mm EXQUISITE BEAUTY from Hawaii:
$15.46
Get free shipping for your entire order when you buy 3 or more shells at the same time.
Cypraea hawaiiensis #7 22.7mm, Melvill 1888,EXQUISITE BEAUTY from Hawaii
. Found on a night dive in 45 feet of water under rubble, Nanakuli, Oahu, Hawaii, 1973.
. Night diving...so, having explained the joys of night diving in the 60's and 70's, I thought you would enjoy what Tony Wells sent about diving at night off the west coast of Oahu---
.Below is an excerpt from in my book, BLACK MAN UNDER THE DEEP BLUE SEA about Night Diving at Makua, Hawaii:
Night DivingWe also used to go night diving in Hawaii. Sometimes we just swamout from the shore and dove in the shallow water areas but other timeswhen we wanted to have deeper dives we used our rubber zodiac mountedwith a small outboard engine to take us far offshore.However, to dive on a flat sandy bottom was boring to us becausemost of the marine life is always concentrated around the reefs and rockyunderwater areas. So, our main dilemma during night dives was howwere we going to find the nice rocky bottom areas to dive on? Since anunderwater light will only penetrate about 10 to 15 feet in any directionthat means we would have to dive down just to check if the bottom wasto our liking or not before we actually anchored and dove there.
One of our favorite challenging things to do was the following; Wewould get in our zodiac and motor out into the blackness until we feltwe were at least 500 or more yards offshore. Then, in order to checkwhat the sea bottom was like, one person would jump over the side onlywearing a mask and fi ns and do a breath hold dive down to the bottom toinvestigate what it looked like. Here’s our dare – the diver who wouldn’tturn on his dive light for the longest time period was the winner.
Can you imagine this? Imagine-- its pitch black at night and you’reout in the ocean somewhere and you have to jump over the side andswim down as deep and as close to the bottom as you can before youcould turn on your light to see what the heck is around you. Oh yes,believe it or not, we used to do this quite often during our night divingexpeditions. Was I ever the winner? Yes, sometimes I was. I could divedown in the blackness to a depth of fifty feet or deeper without turningon my dive light to see the dark, scary bottom approaching.
The trick was to just not think about whatever could be swimmingthere right next to you while under the blackness. I think you have tohave this attitude if you’re a commercial diver also because if you wouldalways think to yourself, ‘What was that shadow I just saw?’ Or, ‘Whatwas that that just brushed against me?’, you would totally freak out andwouldn’t even last five minutes down there in the murky black watersthat we were required to work in most times.
. Wow, the things we would do to go shell collecting!
. Anyhow, as the photos show,this gorgeous, live-collected, near-GEMbeauty collected by Tony Wells, who found some stunning shells while night diving off of the west coast of Oahu, explains why people did crazy things like dive for the bottom in the middle of the night with your dive light off! And as you may have noticed, the shell has a new name---formally called a helvola, it is now called the Hawaiiensis Cowrie. Fortunately, it is still a beautifulshell by any name, andthis onewill lookterrificsitting on your shelf!
. The perfect shell for a first-rate collection.
As for normal disclaimers, we do the best we can with photos, but color is tricky, especially since cell phone cameras automatically lean towards flesh-tone coloring, (that's why so many of the photos of shells on show up with more orange than is really there, the camera changes the color, and damm if I can figure out how to stop that from happening, but I try, honest!
As for response, as your know, sellers live and die by the response you leaved, (please leave fives!) so if you have a problem, just let me know! After all, I'm retired, and all messages go directly to my phone, so unless I'm out shell collecting I will get back to you pronto-like!
Shell collecting! Now there's a phrase that brings smiles to your eyes, doesn't it!
Anyhow, if you have read this far, you have my apologies and best wishes from those of us at IslandShells323. And don't forget,
Home is where your collection is!
Cypraea hawaiiensis #7 22.7mm,Melvill 1888,EXQUISITE BEAUTY from Hawaii
Buy 3 or more shells, get free shipping promotion---This promotion applies toany3 shells bought at the same time, but unfortunately, sometimes it doesn't work, and we have to refund the shippingafteryou the buy 3 shells! But no problem, we always will! And if you have questions, we are here to answer them!
Free shipping limitations---Please note, free shippingappliesonlyto USA destinations.
International sales---We use 's Global Shipping Program,calculates the shipping and taxes, not us,and at this time doesnotship to everywhere, sorry. Please ask us if you have any questions.
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