About Plicopurpura columellaris (Lamarck, 1816)
Plicopurpura columellaris is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk that belongs to the family Muricidae. Coastal Mixtec people living in Oaxaca have traditionally used this species to make purple dye, extracting the ink from the snails through a process called 'milking'. The ink produced by Plicopurpura columellaris contains neurotoxins that the snails use to paralyze their prey, but these neurotoxins are not harmful to humans. Plicopurpura columellaris was once native to the entire west coast of Central America, as well as parts of Mexico and Colombia, but the species is now found only within Huatulco National Park. The species' population began to decline in the 1980s, when Japanese companies started killing the snails to produce dye for kimonos. While extracting ink from the snails does not kill them, commercial ink harvesters often drowned the snails or left them to die in the sun after collecting their ink. In 1994, the Mexican government designated Plicopurpura columellaris as a protected species. Since this designation, only indigenous Mixtec people from Pinotepa de Don Luis have been legally permitted to milk the snails for ink. The species still continues to face threats from illegal poaching.
