Shelling in Rosario Island, Colombia by Marcus Coltro

We constantly receive shells from Colombia, but I was curious to see what shells I could find there myself. Tony McCleery was going to spend a few days in the Cartagena area and invited me to go on one more trip - which I gladly accepted.

I arrived in Cartagena in the afternoon and met Tony there. Our destination was Rosario Island – a small group of islands a few miles south of Cartagena. We left the next morning and on the way there, dredged at 35-40 meters and collected a beautiful Typhis bullisi and some nice small bivalves, in addition to Marginellas for Tony.

The weather was not very nice, raining and very windy. A few minutes after anchoring, a Coast Guard boat came to warn us to take care of our equipment and dinghy since there had been some reports of thefts in the area. They did not seem interested in our papers, even though Tony had presented them. They were heavily armed and wearing bulletproof vests - I guess they have to be tough looking to scare the bandits.

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After lunch, I jumped into the water and did a shallow dive. The water was murky, not very appealing. After turning a few dead corals, I found a few shells such as Cypraea zebra, Caribachlamys imbricata, Pinna carnea and some small bivalves. At night, we discussed databases and other computer stuff, after a light meal served with nice cold beer.

The next morning, we went diving together on some rocks on the outer side of the island, but we found few shells there. We moved to the other island, next to a public aquarium which attracts many tourists from Cartagena. Again, the water was murky, probably due to the heavy rain and strong currents. I spent nearly four hours; most of the coral was dead, and I found few shells. But near the end of the dive, I found some great shells such as Latirus, colored Chlamys sentis, more Cypraea zebra and beautiful Cypraea cinerea.

Back on the boat, I rested a little and we had a nice dinner. Life on a boat is quite different from home (too bad, Tony did not install cable TV yet!). Since we are usually very tired at night, we go to bed around 8:00p.m. and wake early in the morning (Tony wakes up really early – around 5:00a.m.). After a short breakfast, we usually work a little on the computer and then I go diving until lunchtime. After lunch, we take a nap and get back to the water, return around 4:00p.m., use the computer again and have dinner.

That night we had another thunderstorm with strong winds. I could hear the anchor chain making awful noises on the bottom and we had to check from time to time that we were not being dragged to the nearby reefs.

On the next morning, we moved the boat so that we could drop the second anchor in a deeper place for added security. After we managed to do that, I rode the dinghy to a more distant location. To my surprise, the water there was much nicer and clean. I found some large Lima scabra, Lima lima, small turrids, more Cypraea and Chlamys - no sign of any Conus though... After lunch, I dove under the boat to make sure it was OK - the previous night, we had anchored on top of a seamount covered with dead lettuce coral. I was glad we dropped the second anchor since the first one did drag down there, creating a long valley in the coral reef (at least it was not live coral). The second anchor was securely in deep mud at 20 meters. I took the opportunity to look for some shells down there, hand dredged some Nassarius and other small bivalves.

see photo presentation »

That night, we were less worried since the boat was steadier - and the strong winds seemed to have stopped. On the next day, we left the bay to try dredging once more. The weather was good - no wind or rain. But the sea was rough and I was not as acclimated as I had thought. Tony tried to do some dredging without my help while I was feeling miserable on my bed, wishing I were diving instead...

Since the dredging was not successful, Tony went back to our previous anchoring place. When we arrived, a fisherman came and sold us a few large crabs, which we had for dinner. Those crabs are very nice and tasty, but require a lot of work to remove the meat from the shell. Tony cooked them and I prepared spices and mayonnaise to spread on bread.

My dive on the next morning was better than expected: when I turned a rock, a huge Conus granulatus popped up! I did not expect to find any granulatus on this trip, so it took me a few seconds to realize what it was! Although it was crabbed, the shell was one of the most beautiful I ever saw. I was very happy going back to the boat, but then, looking at my watch, I noticed that the stem was loose - it was working, but I know that if water gets inside, it can destroy the watch in a few hours! I returned to the boat with mixed feelings about the Conus and my watch. Tony was surprised about my find and he offered to open my watch to let it dry. But he did not have the right tools, so we gave up on that idea. It looked like just some mist entered the case and it was working fine.

On subsequent days, I was able to dive in reasonably clear water and found several other species in different spots on each dive. It was amazing how different each spot was considering how close they were, ranging from rich colorful reefs to dead and ugly places. The marine life was equally variable and I was glad there were not many sea urchins this time. In their place, I encountered more sponge species than anywhere else until now - all colors and shapes - most of them were quite painful to the touch. I had to wear two gloves on each hand to prevent being stung, but since I had I worn only one glove on my first dives, both hands were on fire, numb and painful at the same time. A skin rash is the price for not paying attention and diving so much! At least I did not have any sea urchin accidents this time. I saw some large and venomous stonefish, almost turned one of them thinking it was a rock, but stopped a few centimeters away realizing what it was. Those fishes are not afraid of most creatures and they rarely move even when touched - they certainly are aware of their venom power.

We returned to the place we arrived in Rosarios on the first day and I rode the dinghy to an outer reef. It was shallow, about one meter deep, surrounded by deeper water, which I intended to investigate. The coral in the wall was totally dead, covered by brown algae, no shells or any other animals. I accidentally broke a piece of dead lettuce coral head and saw it disappear into deep water. The visibility was awful, but I wanted to go down anyway. I heard some noises - barracudas grinding their teeth. Coincidentally, on the previous night we had talked about barracudas. I never met anyone who had actually been attacked, but Tony knew of a few, including one friend who had a serious injury to his hand; he had worn yellow gloves, which may have caused the attack. I do not care for them, and respectfully swim away after my Bahamas encounter. This time, I did the same when I spotted one nearby. I carefully covered my watch (which attracted its attention since it was the only shiny thing I had) and went to the other side of the reef - where I found two more. The current was quite strong, and as my compass was not very reliable (yes, I still have my Mickey Mouse model), I surfaced to check how far I was from the dinghy. It was 300 meters away - and I had to swim on the surface against the current with my BC inflated! I could not go under water since it might get lost if relying on my compass (I promised myself to buy a decent one...) so it was not a very strenuous task. I made it to the dinghy and quieted my anxiety. I continued the dive making sure I didn’t stray far from the place the inflatable was anchored.

When I arrived back at the boat, Tony handed me another tank so that I could clean the propeller as I had promised (I think I lost one kilo that afternoon). I did my best until I could no longer raise my arms nor breathe, and when I climbed on the dinghy to go up to the boat, a Coast Guard boat came to check on us again. This time, they boarded and asked for papers. But they did not enter the cabin to look for drugs or guns - maybe they realized we were two crazy gringos diving for fun only.

That was our last day on Rosario Island before we headed to Cartagena. It was my goal to dredge on our way there and in Cartagena Bay. We did find some nice shells at 40 - 50 meters, and Tony suggested we change the regular steel dredge to a trawl he had stored on the back of the boat under two large latches on the floor. While he was piloting the boat, I went to get the trawl. Those latches are heavy and are hydraulically operated. Well, it opened smoothly but when I closed it, it came down fast onto my leg! What the heck, what is a diving trip without some bruises to show? Ouch!

Tony felt that something was wrong with the steering wheel - he stopped the boat and opened the latch under his bed where the mechanism is. A large bolt had fallen out and it was very tricky to put it back in its place due to the tight working space. Obviously he could have fixed that by himself - but I offered to help anyway. Using large tools, we were able to move the arm which holds the system and put the bolt back.

The trawl worked fine, we entered Cartagena Bay and did some test runs there. Nothing too amazing, except two small Conus sp. which were dredged just before we entered the bay. Lots of organic material like leaves and other stuff brought by the rain – a very muddy place.

That night, I prepared a nicer meal using frozen lobsters Tony had in his freezer (see recipe). We slept well through the night and early in the morning, went out of the bay for our last dredging. From 30 meters, we hauled up some more beautiful Typhis bullisi among sea weed, but no small Marginellas for Tony, so we moved to 90 meters deep where he found some nice Granulinas and other small Marginellas, nice Turridae and other shells.

I had to be at the airport very early in the morning so we got back to the bay in order to pack all my shells and diving gear. That night there was no wind - which is not good inside a protected bay which is also without current. The result was that the boat rolled all night making it difficult for me to sleep...

I hired a cab and went straight to the airport. Once there, I had to wait in line so the police could inspect my luggage thoroughly - they were not concerned about shells but checked every pocket of my suitcases looking for drugs - they even put a stick inside my shampoo to make sure I was not carrying any hidden drugs!

After traveling the whole day, I arrived in Sao Paulo airport - feeling tired as usual, but looking forward to my next trip!

English checking by John Wolff