The Davui Trumpet Shell

from w
The other evening while we were drinking kava and yarning, I noticed two very large Fiji trumpet shells which we call davui. So we asked where our friends had got them during their recent trip to Fiji. The reply was that a cousin had been on the reef, had brought them in, cooked the animal inside and then given the shells to them. I thought these were very precious kind of shells so wondered about the customs but it was explained that they were not 'bought' but were caught by a relative. On the internet such shells are for sale for about $3000. They are actually very important in the ecology of the reef these days as the davui creature eats the crown of thorns starfish that does so much damage to the reef.