The shell world is devastated by the loss of Peter Clarkson. February 15 he passed away in horror after a brutal attack by two great whites! Clarkson was the co author of the for all of us famous book Australia’s Spectacular Cowries. He was a very renowned Zoila diver and instrumental in the knowledge in Australian cowries we have today.
I hope all of us will not take it for granted anymore to be able to buy nice Zoila just like that. They sometimes come with a price. A very high price! The life of a good man! Let us all take a minute to pray for the family, close friends and admirers he is leaving behind.
I have never had the pleasure and honor of meeting Peter Clarkson in person. I’d wish I had. But one of my close friends has known him very well and said it was a privilege to have known such an honest, straight forward and great person. “There are very few of his kind,” he told me.
Peter Clarkson died while doing what he loved the most: diving for shells and being in the ocean. Let us remember him every time we look at his wonderful book or at one of our Zoila!
Submitted by Willy Van Damme of Belgium, a leading seller of rare cypraea.
Additional information: The Australian press stated, “It has been reported that the diver was returning to the surface … when two sharks, believed to be great whites, have grabbed him.” The shark attack occurred, near Perforated Island, about 25km from Coffin Bay. Clarkson was a commercial abalone diver.
Broward Shell Club 