this diver's mind the uhimate in all thrills is the finding of Cypraea tesselata, 

 that living gem of the ocean! 



It is with a feeling of disgust that one reali/^es that the air supply is 

 running out and it is time to surface. As we slowly follow our anchor line 

 to the surface, we always KNOW that we left behind a prize in the coral 

 head we hadn't been able to investigate. But surface we must, once again 

 reverting to the snorkel and float for the swim back to the beach. 



COLLECTOR'S ITEMS FROM COMMERCIAL FISHING GEAR 



By Lela M. Griffith 

 Reprinted from Nautilus, Vol. 68 (1), July 1954 



To us, commercial fishing has always had an important by-product — 

 mollusks and other forms of life from deep water. Our shell collection was 

 actually started, not with shells gathered on the beach and not even with 

 mollusks, but with two species of Brachiopoda snagged on trolling gear 

 some years ago. They were taken in Sechelt Inlet and brought home as 

 curiosities, later to be identified as Laqueus jeffreysi, a smooth round 

 brownish lamp shell, and Terehratalia transversa, quite heavily ribbed and 

 of a reddish color, each attached to a sponge by a peduncle or stalk. We 

 still have them and to this modest beginning have added from time to time 

 all that our own gear brought up and all that we could persuade anyone 

 else to save of deep-water material. 



It is not quite accurate to say the shells were snagged on the gear 

 although once in a while a scallop closes on a hook. What the hook catches 

 as it is hauled along the bottom is much more likely to be a sponge or 

 bryozoan which in turn often brings up the rock to which it adheres; and 

 either the sponge or the rock may carry a variety of shells and other small 

 creatures. 



The population of one more or less typical rock consisted of the fol- 

 lowing assortment: four bryozoans of three different species, one Snake's 

 Head Lamp Shell (Terebratulina unguicula), one Little Lamp Shell (Pla- 

 fidea aneminoides), two Ridged Clams (Humilaria kennerleyi), one Horse 

 Mussel (Modiolus modiolus), three Hairy Snails (Trichotropis cancellata), 

 one Lyons' Shell (Lyonsia pugetensis), and two corallines (Balanophyllia 

 elegans). These ranged in size from a 3-inch bryozoan to a Platidea no 

 bigger than the head of a pin. Naturally a good many rocks and sponges 

 are barren, and not all types of fishing gear have hooks, but each has con- 

 tributed, at one time or another, something besides the commercial product 

 for which it is used. 



Aside from those already mentioned, we have had few shells of any 

 value from trolling gear but did pick off kelp, dragged from 6 fathoms near 

 Grant Reef in the Gulf of Georgia, a tiny pearly Cypraeolina pyriformis, 

 a snail shaped like an infinitesimal cowry, and one Clinocardium calif or- 

 niense, a small cockle with more and finer ribs than the common Basket 

 Cockle. 



(37) 



