In the Philippines very deep water shells are collected with tangle nets called "lumen lumen" in the Visayan dialect. Worn out fishnets are reused by rolling them into a sausage shape and weighted with stones on the slopes and vertical drop offs at edge of reefs. These tangle nets are left for weeks and months at a time then hauled up with the shells hiding inside. The larval veliger stage of mollusks settle on the nets and make it their home and daytime hiding place like artificial habitat. Rare cones, murex, cowries, slit shells, Angaria and other rare shells are collected this way. If I had the finances I would have a research vessle with a deep water Remote Operated Vehicle with live video camera to study the living shells in their natural habitat. Many of these species are beyond the limits of divers and some have never been seen in natural habitat especially the carrier shells. In the old days the venus flower basket sponges were collected with a 14 foot wide dredge made of bamboo with hooks along the outer edges to snag the sponges. They have been a traditional wedding gift in Japan because of the association with a species of shrimp that live only inside these sponges. One male and one female shrimp when larval stage enter the top sieve end and grow too large to escape and become imprisoned for life. Some dried sponges in shell shops have the remains of these shrimp still inside.
In the Philippines very deep water shells are collected with tangle nets called "lumen lumen" in the Visayan dialect. Worn out fishnets are reused by rolling them into a sausage shape and weighted with stones on the slopes and vertical drop offs at edge of reefs. These tangle nets are left for weeks and months at a time then hauled up with the shells hiding inside. The larval veliger stage of mollusks settle on the nets and make it their home and daytime hiding place like artificial habitat. Rare cones, murex, cowries, slit shells, Angaria and other rare shells are collected this way. If I had the finances I would have a research vessle with a deep water Remote Operated Vehicle with live video camera to study the living shells in their natural habitat. Many of these species are beyond the limits of divers and some have never been seen in natural habitat especially the carrier shells. In the old days the venus flower basket sponges were collected with a 14 foot wide dredge made of bamboo with hooks along the outer edges to snag the sponges. They have been a traditional wedding gift in Japan because of the association with a species of shrimp that live only inside these sponges. One male and one female shrimp when larval stage enter the top sieve end and grow too large to escape and become imprisoned for life. Some dried sponges in shell shops have the remains of these shrimp still inside.