Male student Tran Tien Dat (Faculty of Fisheries, Can Tho University) has surprised many people when he owns a massive collection with more than 500 unique sea snail shells, belonging to more than 100 different species.
Born and raised in the coastal area of Tra Vinh, his love for marine life has blossomed in Dat since childhood. In 2016, Dat began a serious journey to collect snail shells.
Sharing about this special passion, Dat said that each snail shell is like a unique work of art of nature, carrying a diverse beauty in color and shape. Moreover, they tell stories about life and marine ecosystems.
Collisioning snail shells not only helps me expand my knowledge and understand biodiversity more deeply, but also raises awareness of marine environmental protection, Dat said.
Dat's collection is not only limited to popular marine snails in Vietnam, but also includes some rare specimens that he diligently searched for, exchanged and received from the sharing of like-minded people and fishermen in many provinces and cities.
In addition, the diligent student also proactively searched through participating in groups specializing in snail shells on social networks. To get new snail shells, I often discuss with other members of the group or sell those that have a large quantity. This buying, selling and exchanging not only helps me get new samples but can also cover part of my daily expenses, Dat happily said.
After nearly a decade of perseverance, Dat's collection has reached more than 500 snail shells, of various types and sizes. From the small snail shells like nails to the "giants" such as red needle snails, male snails, duck snails, crab snails, sun snails, snails... all are carefully cared for and preserved by Dat.
Not only stopping at quantity, the value of the collection also makes many people admire. The snail shells are worth from tens of thousands of VND to tens of millions of VND, depending on their rarity.
Notably, in Dat's collection, there is a slit shell (scientific name entemnotrochus rumphii), with a diameter of up to 21cm. This snail often lives in the waters of the Philippines, Japan... According to the sharing, there is currently someone paying 2,500 USD (equivalent to 60 million VND) for this unique snail shell, but Dat still has no intention of selling.
The uniqueness and scale of Dat's sea snail shell collection has attracted the attention of many people, especially students of Can Tho University. Many friends expressed their excitement and admiration for the special passion of the Department of Fisheries student.
Currently, Dat is constantly searching for and adding new snail shells to his collection, with the desire to increasingly enrich the miniature "sea museum" that he has worked hard to build. In particular, Dat is always ready to share interesting information about marine life for everyone to learn about, thereby helping to spread love for nature and awareness of environmental protection.
