Apparently they can carry a yellow/golden shell and if its intact (fragile) it is worth a fair bit, because nobody can dive down to the depth of this certain shell, so yea check the guts out.....was told about 15 years ago they sold them for $500 each, but whether that was too far fetched i don't know?

G'day Carvarvonite,

An old fella I used to know was a pro shell diver, once mentioned that it wasn't uncommon to find whole cowrie shells in the queenies. I would imagine the condition wouldn't be good. But I know if you find the cowries in good condition can fetch a few $$ for the pro's only of course.

Fozz

Spanglies are also well known for doing this, found many different shells in them.

There was a story of a blackfella catching a bluebone up around One-arm Point which he cooked for his mob in the coals whole.....next morning the leftovers had a happy family of ants clearing it up.....the bloke noticed a funny rolled up 'scale'.

Got him a new 9hp outboard and two fuel tanks.... 

I got a big wirrah off the front of Sugarloaf Rock a while back with a whole abalone in it,about 4" in dia.How it managed to get it down its mouth had me stuffed,then again have caught tiger sharks with whole turtles in them that we had trouble fitting them through the jaws ---talk about stink,once you have smelt it you will NEVER forget it---sickly sweet and you get a whiff before it comes to the surface