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| photo © 2014 Ellen Bulger |
Seeking behavior, it turns out, is essential to happiness.
And what better way to seek than snorkeling for shells in the clear waters of
Eleuthera? I love the sheltered bays and exotic salt ponds. I get a kick out of
threading my way through a reef when there is a bit of a surge that pulls me
back and forth, back and forth with the schooling fishes. I’ve learned to enjoy
the experience and not fret overly much about if I’m finding shells or not.
Because sometimes, it turns out, the less hard I try, the more I find.
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| photo © 2014 Ellen Bulger |
Oh, I do my homework. I know what to expect in a given habitat and how to check the various substrates. And I’ve been known, when shelling with Jim Cordy, to embark on swim safaris. On Eleuthera, you have to work for your shells, sometimes. Other times the best finds are the ones you practically trip over as you enter the water.
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| photo © 2014 Ellen Bulger |
I’m usually so excited when I get to the Bahamas that I want to cover a lot of ground (sea). But just a few days before this last trip, I was in a car accident. I had some nasty whiplash symptoms. My doctor concurred that swimming in warm water for a week would be the best possible therapy, just so long as I was (slightly) sensible about it.
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| photo © 2014 Ellen Bulger |
I pretty much did everything I’d normally do on a trip. Just this time, I was lazy. I didn’t push myself. I figured, hey, I might not find many new shells, but it will be relaxing. As it turned out, I got my first-ever queen helmet, Cassis madagascariensis, w00t!
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| photo © 2014 Ellen Bulger |
It was at Millar’s, a particularly lovely beach with
marvelous species diversity and a reef that starts right offshore. It was early
in the week and my limbs were achy, so I was moving pretty slowly. There’s a
sandy patch where we get in, and the hard bottom starts on the north side. I
barely had time to adjust my mask and put on my gloves when I saw it, the queen.
I want to say it was in about eight feet of water. The chunky snail was
snacking on a buried biscuit urchin.
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| photo © 2014 Ellen Bulger |
It wasn’t massive, but it was big enough
to make my heart pound. And it was clean as clean could be, a perfect specimen.
I swam in circles above it for a minute or two, just savoring the giddiness. I managed to take a few snapshots with the Sony DSC-TX30 before I snagged it.
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| photo © 2014 Ellen Bulger |
I know the vivid salmon of the shield will fade. The glorious sculpture, however, ain't going nowhere. If you are feeling jealous, why not take an Astronaut Trail Shell Club
trip to Eleuthera with Jim Cordy and try your luck? Maybe you'll find one bigger than mine.
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| photo © 2014 Ellen Bulger |
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