On the wheelhouse deck there is a tiger cowrie, its shiny shell as bright as a polished marble floor.

Carnivorous, the adult tiger cowrie eats coral and various invertebrates, while juveniles eat algae.

Koen spots the glistening shell of a tiger cowrie in a crevice in the reef, and I find an octopus peeking from its lair.

Cypraea tigris, commonly known as the tiger cowrie, is a species of cowry, a large sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries.

You’ll also find loads of bluestripe snapper, whitetips and, for the observant, stunning nudibranchs, tiger cowries, leaffish, turkeyfish, triton trumpet shells and 7-11 crabs.

Conversely there are many excellent non predatory species notably the Tiger Cowrie (Cypraea tigris ) and the colourful Map Cowrie (C. arabica )

The tiger cowrie is found on the ocean floor in the Indo-Pacific region, from the eastern coast of Africa to the waters of Micronesia and Polynesia, the Coral Sea and around the Philippines.

Unfortunately there have rarely been precise identifications although two are stated to be of Middle Eastern origin, the Cypraea Arabica from Sarre grave 238 and a tiger cowrie from Haslingfield (Cambridgeshire), whose source is the Red Sea.

Despite the fact that this species does not occur in the Mediterranean Sea, shells of the tiger cowrie and the related panther cowrie, Cypraea pantherina, have been unearthed at Pompeii, the ancient Roman city near Naples, Italy, where these shells may have been used as some form of ornament.

Conversely there are many excellent non predatory species notably the Tiger Cowrie (Cypraea tigris ) and the colourful Map Cowrie (C. arabica )