The shell set evokes pride in the sea and islands

15 YEARS OF COLLECTION

"It can be said that this is the largest collection of sea shells that Hoang Sa Exhibition House has ever received and displayed, introducing to the public. To have a collection with a total of about 2,000 specimens of 1,000 species of sea shells, the owner must be a very persistent person and passionately love the sea and islands of the Fatherland", said Dr. Le Tien Cong, Director of Hoang Sa Exhibition House. Before coming to the exhibition house, this collection of shells belonged to Mr. Phan Thanh Toai (49 years old, residing in Hai Chau District, Da Nang City), a coach at the Da Nang Swimming Center.

Mr. Phan Thanh Toai with his rare shell collection before transferring it to Hoang Sa Exhibition House.

Mr. Toai was born and raised in Thanh Binh fishing village (Thanh Khe district, Da Nang city). Since childhood, he was attached to the sea, he was a good swimmer and later became a diving coach. The nature of his job gave him the opportunity to regularly visit coastal areas across the country to practice and teach. "In 2005, I and the Da Nang swimming team trained in China and were given a book titled Chinese Snails . Reading the book, I realized that there were many types of snails still present in Vietnam. From then on, I was determined to collect snails from my country's seas," said Mr. Toai.

In his research on sea snails, he read the book Vietnamese Sea Snails (author Nguyen Ngoc Thach), thanks to which he gained more knowledge about the characteristics, structure, and identification of this marine creature. In 2005, starting his journey to search for and collect snails, Mr. Toai's footprints had reached almost all sea areas from the south to the north. By 2020, when he transferred it to the Hoang Sa Exhibition House, his collection had thousands of sea snail specimens. Among them, there are rare snail species that are the dream of many collectors, such as 2 fossils of nautilus, orange porcelain snail, abalone, many mutated sea snail species...

UNIQUE SNAIL SHELLS FROM HOANG SA , TRUONG SA

After 15 years of collecting, Mr. Toai has made many friends who are sea shell collectors, oceanographic researchers... across the country. In particular, with his determination to collect snails living in the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa seas under Vietnam's sovereignty, he has become friends with many fishermen in the Central region. He said that to own snails in the two archipelagos mentioned above, only fishermen who go out to sea all year round, catch seafood, have the conditions to collect snail shells and bring them back to him. "There are many types of precious snail shells, old but fishermen do not know how to exploit and preserve them. Therefore, in addition to ordering, I also have to instruct fishermen on how to preserve them to keep the shells intact," said Mr. Toai.

Mr. Phan Thanh Toai's collection of more than 1,000 snail species contributes to enriching the artifacts of Hoang Sa Exhibition House.

Mr. Toai's passion was rewarded when fishermen who had been attached to the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa fishing grounds returned to the mainland and brought with them many types of sea snails that only lived in these two archipelagos, such as the golden snail, the parrot snail, the paper squid snail, the thorny clam, the king's cap snail, the elephant ear snail... Among them, the paper squid snail (scientific name Aegonau argo linnaeus), found in 1758, is considered especially rare. The largest one recorded in the world was 223 mm in size, and Mr. Toai currently owns one that is 280 mm in size. The parrot snail is known as a "modern living fossil"... In addition to collecting sea snails, Mr. Toai also collected 80 fossils of Cu Lao Cham stone crabs, which are considered extremely unique.

The shell collection attracts young people when visiting Hoang Sa Exhibition House.

There are many endemic species of sea snails that only live in certain sea areas. In Vietnam's sea areas, with the conditions of the sea, climate, and weather, there are also suitable snail species. Therefore, Mr. Toai's collection of sea snail shells in Vietnam's sea areas also contributes to affirming the sovereignty of the sea and islands. At the end of 2020, after transferring all the sea snail shells to the Hoang Sa Exhibition House, he only kept a few snail fossils to commemorate his 15-year collecting journey. Immediately after receiving them, the exhibition house introduced many rare snail shells, including many snails living in the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos. The exhibition house also designed a sand map of Vietnam by attaching hundreds of snail shells of many species, creating a unique display that attracts viewers.

Dr. Le Tien Cong, Director of Hoang Sa Exhibition House, commented that people and tourists coming to the exhibition house not only get to see many documents and artifacts about the history of sea and island sovereignty but also learn more about marine creatures. Along with marine animal specimens, the collection of shells is like an affirmation of the richness and diversity of seafood in our country's sovereign waters, especially in the two archipelagos of Hoang Sa and Truong Sa, thereby arousing love for the sea and islands of the Fatherland. "The "huge" collection of shells that Mr. Phan Thanh Toai transferred to the exhibition house are vivid visual artifacts that will help young people, especially children, when coming to learn about sea and island sovereignty at the exhibition house to find it more interesting...", Mr. Cong emphasized.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/thu-vui-suu-tam-do-doc-la-bo-vo-oc-khoi-day-niem-tu-hao-bien-dao-185240803214348692.htm