This morning, Birdo, Julian, Bill and myself braved the warm autumn sun and
calm seas and dived up the coast from Shelly Beach towards Fairy Bower, a
place where a grey nurse shark has been sighted on many occasions.

Our intention was to look for Ghost Pipefish, seahorses and other small
critters.

Fleeing from the small pipefish that Julian discovered and whose jaws (the
pipefish's - not Julian's!), looked as though they could inflict a painful
injury if only it was 2000 times biggger, I discovered a small shell that
was similar to one that Birdo and I had spotted a few weeks back.

That particular one was a living specimen.  It was - as with the shell that
I discovered today - about 2.5 cms (1 inch) long with a brilliant blue
mantle extending out for some distance beyond and around the shell, which is
slightly off-white in colour and with about sixteen or more black stripes of
different thickness passing around the body.  (It looks like a bar-code
symbol!)  :-)

In my limited book of shells - called 'Shells'! - the closest critter that I
can find is a Belted Margin Shell, found in the waters of West Africa.  Is
this one an 'illegal immigrant'?  :-)

Strike