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CONIDAE DE POLYNESIE Texte DAVID T OUITOU Et MICHEL BALLETON - Traduction ALAIN ROBIN CONIDAE DE POLYNESIE Texte DAVID T OUITOU et MICHEL BALLETON - Traduction ALAIN ROBIN Introduction Difficultés et originalités de la collecte des Introduction The various archipelagoes Les différents archipels. cônes en Polynésie Polynesia is made up of five archipelagoes very La Polynésie est composée de cinq Probablement dû à plusieurs facteurs, la different one to the other, with a total surface archipels très différents les uns des autres Polynésie possède assez peu d’endémisme matching roughly Europe, in the middleof the largest ocean in the world: the Pacific. They dont la superficie totale correspond à peu si l’on fait abstraction des îles include: près à celle de l’Europe, le tout au beau marquisiennes. Si vous passez des - the Society archipelago made up mainly milieu de l’océan le plus vaste du monde : vacances sur Tahiti et Moorea puis faites of high islands, with worldwide recognition le Pacifique. On retrouve donc : un saut dans les Tuamotu, vous ne islands such as Tahiti, Moorea and Bora Bora. - the archipelago of Tuamotus made up - l’archipel de la Société, composé ramènerez que des espèces classiques de mainly of atolls : Rangiroa, Manihi, principalement d’îles dites hautes, dans la zone Indo-Pacifique. Seule une excursion Mururoa, Fakarava or Tikehau. lequel on retrouve les îles mondialement dans l’archipel des Marquises vous - the Australs archipelago composed of connues comme Tahiti, Moorea et Bora permettra de récolter, si la météo est high islands, Rurutu and Tubuaï being the most known. Bora. clémente, les véritables trésors poly- - the archipelago of Gambier composed - l’archipel des Tuamotu, composé nésiens. of high islands, like Mangareva, and of small principalement d’atolls, comme islands like Taravai, Akamaru or Aukena. Rangiroa, Manihi, Mururoa, Fakarava ou Du fait de l’absence de plateau continental, - the Marquesas archipelago composed of high islands without lagoon, of which Tikehau. la zone de collecte est restreinte. Les fonds Nuku-Hiva and Hiva-Oa are the most known. - l’archipel des Australes, composé autour des îles sont abyssaux. Par exemple, d’îles hautes, Rurutu et Tubuaï étant les entre Tahiti et Moorea, distantes de Difficulties and originalities of the plus connues. seulement 6 miles, on tombe rapidement collection of cones in Polynesia - l’archipel des Gambier, composé dans des fonds de 3000m… Ceci entraîne Probably due to several factors, Polynesia has d’îles hautes, comme Mangareva, et de un autre problème, la fragilité de relatively little endemism if one disregards the petites îles comme Taravai, Akamaru ou l’écosystème. Une collecte excessive, une Marquesas islands. If you spend holidays on Tahiti Aukena. destruction physique du milieu ou une forte and Moorea and then fly to the Tuamotus, you will bring back only traditional species of the - l’archipel des Marquises, composé pollution locale peuvent réellement Indo-Pacific zone. Only a trip to the Marquesas d’îles hautes sans lagon, dont Nuku- entraîner la raréfaction rapide d’une ou archipelago will allow you to collect, weather Hiva et Hiva-Oa sont les plus connues. plusieurs espèces. permitting, the true Polynesian treasures. Because of the absence of a continental shelf, the collection area is restricted. Bottoms around the islands are abyssal. For example, between Tahiti and Moorea, only 6 miles distant, bottoms POLYNESIE FRANCAISE fall quickly to 3000m... This involves another problem, the weakness of the ecosystem. An excessive collection, a physical destruction of Iles Marquises the biotope or a strong local pollution can really trigger a quick rarefaction of one or more species. The geographical isolation of Polynesia in the Pacific, as well as the path of the oceanic currents (key factors for the dissemination of the species for transport of the planktonic larvae of molluscs) deprive us of many species present and well spread in the Indo-Pacific zone. Many species do not exist here, for example C. crocatus, C. ammiralis, C. monachus, C. magus Tuamotou or C. marmoreus, species however quite present in the Pacific Ocean. Moreover species known as rare are often untraceable, as it is the case of C. adamsonii, C. auratinus, C. aureus and C. auricomus for Iles de la Société example. Other species known as common or not very common are also collected only exceptionally in Polynesia, like C. arenatus, C. nussatella or C. generalis Another major concern has been the rarefaction of the shells since a few years. It seems that this Tropique du Capricorne phenomenon more precisely impacts the area Iles Gambier since 2003-2004. One observes a significant reduction in molluscs, especially on the barrier Iles Australes reef in the archipelago of the Society Islands. Tuamotus and the Marquesas seem so far to escape this phenomenon. This brutal rarefaction seems to touch mainly the cowries but also the cones (cowries being the food of many reef species of Conidae). XENOPHORA N° 111 27 L’isolement géographique de la Polynésie espèces, mais nous aurions dû trouver des As a real example, when I arrived in 2002, I dans le Pacifique, ainsi que le cheminement milliers de coquilles mortes. spent a lot of time on the various reefs of Moorea looking for cones, and I saw many common des courants océaniques (facteurs Hors cela n’a pas été le cas. Les coquillages cowries such as Cypraea lynx, C helvola, C essentiels à la dissémination des espèces de sable (Terebridae et Costellaridae par caputserpentis, C moneta, C carneola C isabella, par le transport des larves planctoniques exemple) semblent cependant moins C erosa, C fimbriata, to quote the most common. des mollusques) nous privent également de touchés par le phénomène. Mais alors, où Every morning spent roaming the reefs , I always found one or two beautiful Cypraea maculifera nombreuses espèces pourtant présentes et sont donc passés nos coquillages de récif ? recently dead. Today it sometimes happens to bien réparties dans la zone Indo-Pacifique. Ce phénomène est très préoccupant et me to come over some C obvelata, or one or two Ainsi de nombreuses espèces n’existent mérite que l’on s’y intéresse de très près. C moneta and seldom C caputserpentis on the pas ici, c’est le cas par exemple de Conus same spot of collection as before. The other species became exceptional... crocatus, Conus ammiralis, Conus Quels sont les cônes intéressants que l’on As far as cones are concerned, the obervation is monachus, Conus magus ou encore de peut tout de même espérer rencontrer ? the same, you have to acknowledge a clear Conus marmoreus, espèces pourtant bien Voilà ma liste : rarefaction of their number on the barrier reef. présentes dans l’océan Pacifique. Conus legatus, C. pertusus, C. magnificus, One could believe that a major cause (what could it be?) could have decimated the various species, De plus les espèces dites rares sont C. striatus, C. episcopatus, C. canonicus, but where are the thousands of dead shells? I souvent introuvables ou presque, c’est le C. sugillatus, C. moreleti, C. terebra, C. could not find them ...The sand shells (Terebridae cas de Conus adamsonii, Conus auratinus, acutangulus et C. retifer. La liste est donc and Costellaridae for example) seem less conus aureus et Conus auricomus par assez courte. impacted by this phenomenon. But then, where have our reef shells gone? This phenomenon is exemple. D’autres espèces dites communes very alarming and deserves a very close study. ou peu communes ne sont aussi récoltées De plus la rareté d’une espèce ici est un qu’exceptionnellement en Polynésie, concept qui varie énormément en fonction Which are the interesting cones that can to be comme Conus arenatus, Conus nussatella de l’île ou de l’archipel dans lequel on se found? Here is my list: Conus legatus, C. pertusus, C. magnificus, C. ou Conus generalis. trouve. Ainsi Conus catus et Conus retifer striatus, C. episcopatus, C. canonicus, C. sont très difficiles à récolter dans l’archipel sugillatus, C. moreleti, C. terebra, C. acutangulus Un autre souci majeur est la raréfaction des de la Société alors qu’ils sont plus communs and C. retifer The list is rather short. coquillages depuis quelques années. Il aux Tuamotu où Conus catus devient Moreover the scarcity of a species here is a semble que ce phénomène nous touche commum et Conus retifer peu commun. concept which varies enormously according to plus précisément depuis 2003-2004. On the island or the archipelago you consider. Thus observe une diminution significative des Ce qui nous amène à l’exception marquisienne. C. catus and C. retifer are very difficult to collect mollusques rencontrés, surtout au récif En effet, l’archipel des Marquises concentre in the Society archipelago whereas they are more common in the Tuamotus where C. catus barrière dans l’archipel de la Société. Les l’ensemble des espèces endémiques de becomes common and C. retifer not very Tuamotu et les Marquises semblent pour Polynésie, et les espèces non endémiques que common. l’instant échapper au phénomène. l’on y rencontre, sont souvent différentes (la Cette raréfaction brutale semble toucher plupart du temps, leur test est plus foncé). Which brings us to the Marquesas’ exception. Actually, the Marquesas archipelago concentrates principalement la famille des porcelaines Si vous avez la chance d’aller aux Marquises, all the endemic species of Polynesia, and the mais également celle des cônes (les vous pourrez trouver quelques espèces nonendemic species found there are often different porcelaines font partie de l’alimentation de locales comme Conus encaustus, C. (most of the time, their shell is darker). nombreuses espèces de Conidae récifales). marchionatus, C. gauguini, C. vautieri, C. If you are lucky enough to go to the Marquesas, you will find some local species such asC. unicolor, C. catus f. fuscoolivaceus, C.
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