Marine Life

On Monday night, I attended a talk at Global Dive’s monthly club night about molluscs.
Admittedly, I had only gone for the nudibranchs section but I walked away with a new appreciation for shells – and a great deal of respect for the Cone Shell.
Martin said he would show us why we had been warned not to pick up the shells – personally I had not heard this but after seeing this video, I thought I would go away and find out more .. especially as the shells had made an appearance on World’s Deadliest Creatures – Australia edition.
Did we even have these shells in our waters?

It turns out we do.
Cone shells have been spotted in Northland – specifically in Deep Water Cove.  In 2009, Alan Morrison photographed a cone shell 300m from where the wreck of the HMNZS Canterbury lies.  The Northern Advocate printed the photograph that Alan took – here

Cone shells are large predatory sea snails – molluscs.

The danger to human’s comes from their harpoon which is used to snare fish.  If we pick up the shells, the harpoon can pierce our gloves and/or wetsuit.  The venom from the shell can kill a human in 20 minutes.
Research in to the venom shows that it is possible that it could be used as a non addictive pain releiever – almost 1000 times more powerful than morphine.

If you do see these shells, please don’t touch them!