Pictures of our trip through the South China Sea Oct./Nov. 2002

Singapore	Chinatown market				The EMPRESS	discussing the route with Capt. Vidar (on right)	the route (approximate)
leaving Singapore (at last)	Singapore invites everyone for a swim		this is the most exciting moment (there were some Turrids and Pectens in this haul)
stuff we found on a wreck	Erronea onyx	an Ovulid from the wreck of the REPULSE (click here for info)	O. sinensis, probably	Erosaria miliaris		L. carneola was rare throughout the trip	chick-pea cowries from Damar Is.

		T. teres alveolus	Bistolida ursellus		one of many Cribrarias found	Palmadusta ziczac	operating the dredge
abandoned oil-rigs	A variety of colorful Ovulids from the soft corals growing on the oil-rig


preparing for a night dive	Some Conus bullatus I got on that night dive (boast!)				stuff from a wreck	Simone sorting microshells	Vidar salvaging a porthole with a piece of wreck
	Mike and Bob doing the dishes - plates taken from a wreck				dredging again...
packing and labeling shells. The ship is the Hachijin Maru, which produced several nice mappa	A weird calloused and depressed form of M. eglantina	Leporicypraea geographica rewa	M. arabica asiatica of 90 mm, from a wreck	S. staphylaea	A B. stolida from the Hachijin Maru	B. stolida	Trivia sp.
A Xenophora dived from sandy bottom at 20 m	A pigmy seahorse found in a sea-urchin	A new ssp. of P. hammondae	B. hirundo neglecta	First photograph of a living P. bistrinotata keelingensis	L. geographica rewa	hirundo again
		B. quadrimaculata	that hammondae-thing again	and again...	E. helvola was really common	and also E. labrolineata

					C. cribraria		S. staphylaea
N. punctata			E. annulus		Stellaria solaris dredged from 60 m	Stellaria animal!	That strange Purpuradusta minoridens-like shell again (we had that on our Indonesia-trip last year as well.)
Mitra peculiaris	Stomatella sp.	Erronea walkeri surabajensis	Purpuradusta sp.	N. punctata	P. minoridens		Phenacovolva sp.
P. cicercula	Simnia sp.	S. nucleus, two mantle colors!	T. pellucens (compare with T. teres alveolus above!)	E. beckii was moderately common also in shallow water	E. labrolineata		Acasta Shoal
An incredible Triphorid, 3 cm long and 2 mm wide	beckii again	P. cicercula	A harlekin-shrimp	Pecten irregularis	Erato sp.		E. poraria (was rare)
visitors on deck...	Another dive-charter-boat			returning to Singapore			see you next year...

We traveled about 2500 km and visited 50 dive sites. Jana and me sent back a box with 12 kg of shells, and carried nearly one kilogram of pickled microshells, mainly Triphoridae, Turridae, Mitridae, Ovulidae, Triviidae and Columbellidae. So far, one new species of Olividae has been recognized, a new ssp. of P. hammondae and another possibly new species of Purpuradusta (Cypraeidae) are under study. At least two new Ovulids and one new Erato were found. Range extensions for the South China Sea can be confirmed for P. bistrinotata keelingensis, which was common everywhere, Notadusta martinii for the East coast of Malaysia and the west coast of Borneo, and L. geographica rewa, which was common, whereas L. mappa mappa was moderately rare. Both species were found sympatrically off western Borneo. M. arabica arabica was found in the shallow water around islands whereas M. arabica asiatica was found on wrecks. The conchological differences between both are consistent, and it is striking to note that the asiaticas are more than twice as big as arabica. A specimen of Trivia rubinicolor was dredged from 40 m in the vicinity of Natuna Besar, S. China Sea. Most of our finds are still to be unpacked...

We wish to thank Alica & Vidar, Anne & Wayne, Simone & Hugh , Bob, Brian, Mike, Christina and Gato for making this a real fun trip