PHUKET is proving its attractiveness as an international meetings destination with a seafood flavor. The 17th World Congress of Malacology is being held until July 24 at the Royal Phuket City Hotel.

It's the first time the world's leading experts on molluscs, which include shellfish, marine snails, squids and octopusses, or if you must, octopussies, have gathered in Asia.

We know a stunning beach north of Phuket where the seashells are larger than closed fists and where hundreds of them line the sand. But you won't hear a whisper from us.

With 233 people from 46 countries in attendance, malacology has never had it so good. This year Dr Somsak Panha, as President of Unitas Malacologia, is chairing proceedings. He is a noted malacologist from the Faculty of Science at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.

Much of the talk of shells will be about the theory, although there's an exhibition at the hotel. More than 100 students from related masters and doctoral programs are also presenting 236 articles and 120 research papers.

However Malacologists also have to see their subjects in the wild, so there should be plenty of time away from the lectures for diving off Phuket.

As with last month's big Second Asia Pacific Coral Reef Symposium on Phuket, climate change and coral bleaching will be, appropriately, hot topics.

Perhaps sometime soon they can answer the question we keep asking: how do you make sure that future generations can always enjoy the great beauty of the seas off Phuket and elsewhere around the world?