www.cowries.info

[cowryman3sai]

I always start with the Niger Mappa as the center piece for there beauty.All niger species are attractive from there.I'm wondering which ones are the most difficult to get and which ones are a little more numerous.Also and probably most important is the health of the ocean around New Caledonia fine?I'm guessing it is.Also some numbers on how many are found per species in a year and comments on nigers from australia or other localities would also be of interest to anyone.
_________________
Robert F.Grant lll in Salina,Kansas 67401 U.S.A. Check webshots.com and cypraea collectors are now on Facebook.com.It's extremely cool!!A must check.Been collecting for 45 years.

[benicypraea]

Hello again:

New Caledonia is a very interesting spot in the Pacific. Not only for nigers, only found in the southern region, specially in the surroundings of Nouméa and several small islets and hot reefs inside the great southern lagoon at least these days and always in my own knowledge, because I have never been there. You can find there in very deep water large cowries like Nesiocypraea, another small Nesiocypraea, and many interesting shells like Voluta, Mitra, Murex, Conus, etc. New Caledonia is a good spot for endemic Conidae and other local seashells, like some Volute (Cymbiola rossiniana and Cymbiola deshayesi, i.e.). Concerning niger cowries, I agree that mappa niger are some of the most beautiful cowries in the world. Most of the bizarre specimens (very black, very large, very rostrate...) were collected in the last century, mainly in the 50-60-70-80´s. Some nice black ones, often not strongly rostrate, or with anomalous colours have been collected recently in some spots only by local collectors and divers, and most of these places are not available for the rest of collectors, because some of these are restricted to a few hundreds of meters of reef or even less.
Actually, mappa niger is seldom found, I think is actually the rarest of all the largest niger cowries. Smaller niger cowries are actually found from time to time there in the south, but many of them are not found with incredible rostration or melanism, only with moderate rostration or melanism. For common cowries, like punctata, errones, cylindrica, etc, New Caledonia can offer today some degree of rostration in a few and certain species, but in my opinion the best time for these have been finished definitely. Of course, for large cowries like eglantina, mauritiana, arabica, even the most searched cowry stolida, there are not many to find actually. Most of the productive areas in the past are actually empty of these interesting shells, and if you find them, usually they are normal or just slightly dark.
About the health of the sea in NC, I think is not so bad that we can think. There are good reefs with an incredible marine life in fishes, crabs, octopuses, soft corals, etc, and many of them are actually protected specially in the south thanks to marine reserves. The main and worst problem for the water and marine life there today is, in my opinion, the industrial waste, specially for heavy metals like Nickel and maybe the climatic changement, not only for corals. I think the dredging in deep water is actually prohibited in the water of the island, and people only find common or uncommon shells in the local reefs.
If you are looking for incredible nigers there in the cities, probably you will find only some private collections, and never for sale, of course. If there is a sale there, probably is very expensive, you must remember that the best collections probably are there, in Italy and maybe in France, if I am not wrong.
Where is the best niger collection in the world? Do you know? I don´t know about the owner. Maybe local collectors have the answer...
Another question is about australian nigers: maybe is easier to find local nigers in the surroundings of Keppel Bay, but this is another history. Australian collectors can say more info about Keppel Bay. Never I have been there, only a friend of mine had the chance to go there a few years ago, he had the chance to see a local museum with an enormous coll. of old niger cowries collected in that area. Most of the cowries were the same than NC water. He saw lynx, errones, gracilis, eglantina, arabica, etc. Not so different from the island.
The rostration and melanism on cowries is not exclusively 100% from NC and Australia (NW and NE). You can get incredible annulus rostrated, often more beautiful than true NC ones, in Indian Ocean. Because, why cannot find a strongly rostrated pyrum, lurida, spurca or anything else here? I´m sure that perhaps some day we can offer to the comunity a strange rostrated cowry different from the usual melanistic cowries.
More remarks are welcome.
Regards,
Beni
_________________
I started to collect seashells since my childhood but I decided to focus on cowries in 1990. I like all kind of cowries, freaks, normal, nigers, dwarfs...
Also I collect conidae and Muricidae.

[benicypraea]

Hello all:

People interested about marine reserves in southern New Caledonia will find interesting info in the following site:

www.caledonie-gt-association.com

or even visit the official web of Ministry of Ecology and Sustainable Development in France:
www.ecologie.gouv.fr/-La-Nouvelle-Caledonie- (In French, English and Spanish Languaje).

In the last site is also available info about environment in French Polynesia, Reunion & Mayotte Islands (Indian Ocean) and Guadalupe, this last place in the Caribbean Sea.
Regards,
Beni
_________________
I started to collect seashells since my childhood but I decided to focus on cowries in 1990. I like all kind of cowries, freaks, normal, nigers, dwarfs...
Also I collect conidae and Muricidae.

[Bart]

I agree with benicypraea: there is a real decline in the numbers of "nigers" collected in the southern part of New Caledonia. For more than 30 years I have had contacts with local divers in this area. Cypraea mappa niger is one of the most difficult to obtain; especially when very black (and rostrated).
Cypraea scurra (jet black) is not easy either. In the past years even the more common nigers like: arabica, caurica and eglantina have become
somewhat rarer, I think.
The darkest arabica, caurica and eglantina I acquired from New Caledonia
were purchased about 20 years ago.
Now these shells have become far more expensive!
_________________
I am always interested in buying or exchanging Cowries, especially when they are very variable.

[benicypraea]

Hello Bart:

However, some (formerly) quite common cowries in niger condition, like eglantina and caurica are still found there, alive, in many reefs, amongst others, sometimes with dark tones in background, but very often without fully black dorsum, we may call those shells "metisse" or "semi-melanistic", etc. Likely not fully black or rostrate, but certainly we can say that they are currently the "future" of the real niger cowries there these days.
In fact, a few local divers still find there real nigers sometimes, as far as I know, diving at nightime, hidden in their "secret" spots, often very reduced areas, perhaps in a few dozens of meters on a coral reef inside the southern lagoon, but certainly (in the most of cases, I think) with a sensible rostration or nigerisation, nothing to do with the past decades!!
These shells are usually the smallest cowries, some of them still moderately common in some spots in normal condition, like hirundo rouxi, and clandestina candida, even moneta or annulus...
Regards,
Beni
_________________
I started to collect seashells since my childhood but I decided to focus on cowries in 1990. I like all kind of cowries, freaks, normal, nigers, dwarfs...
Also I collect conidae and Muricidae.

[felix]

The problem in NC is the same as in many places all over the world. The shells are not rarer than before, there are just less and less collectors trying to find them. In many cases, the exact knowledge of where to look has been lost (e.g. in Mauritius.)
Nobody in NC seriously collects niger shells with the same effort as the great collectors of twenty years ago.

[benicypraea]

Really interesting comment, Felix. Perhaps you are right, however, I think (personally) that the search of many nigers is only profitable if you spend a lot of money and time there and always is necessary to have a good information about the most fertile areas where to look for them...
Maybe is also the case in Mauritius?
Thanks for your opinion.
Regards,
Beni
_________________
I started to collect seashells since my childhood but I decided to focus on cowries in 1990. I like all kind of cowries, freaks, normal, nigers, dwarfs...
Also I collect conidae and Muricidae.