BACK TO GRENADINES By Touitou David - Last updated : 03th June 2002

Well I had the chance to go back to Grenadines once more, before i leave definitively Martinique.
We stayed there for 15 days. It was of course not a collecting trip. But i managed to get my hands
on some stuff.

I must say that collecting there is very interesting mostly for coneshells collectors. It is difficult to
find other interesting shells. And it is rare to find dead shells. I can find so many dead shells while
snorkeling in Martinique... there it is quite different.

Here is the trip :

Martinique->St. Lucia(1day)->Bequia(1)->Union(3)->Petit St. Vincent(1 hour)->
Tobago Cays(2)->St. vincent south, Young Island(1)->St. vincent middle, Wallilabou(1)->
St. Lucia(2)->Martinique.

What did i found ?
I only collected/huntes coneshells.

From Union island (Grenadines) i found 3 nice Conus dominicanus (Grenadine's cedonulli).
I found them at night while scuba from 5 to 15m. One was found in 6m and the 2 others in 9m.
They all are about the same size (50-55mm). They are so different from St. Vincent ones.
They were hunting worms in the algae fields (zostera) boders.

Then i found a dead Conus granulatus in Petit St. Vincent (PSV), just in front of the beach,
after the reef. The size is > 40mm.

After what i found one Conus pseudoaurantius and some dead Conus couderti on the
Tobago Cays' reef.

Then we went back to St. Vincent. I dove at night on algae fields on the west side of young Island.
Between 5 & 15m. I did not found any cedonulli... i was upset. i only found some Conus ermineus.
The biggest is >80 mm. I found one from the orange pattern variety as well. I did not remove all the
periostracum as i prefer them with it.

And after while we stayed the day on the west coast were cedonulli supposed to be found.
We saw some dead ones there. But the captain did not want to spend the night there...
He was afraid for many reasons. So I DID NOT scuba at night, i spoted the alage fields there though !!!
I was really very upset, as i had my two 15 liters full tanks ready... We stayed in Wallilabu Bay.
The only one wich do NOT have any algae fields of Thalassia & Zostera. I dove at night for 15 min. from
5 to 25m and went back to boat, did not see anything... :(

Then back to Martinique...