Saturday, January 5, 2008

Shellshocked

Remember how much fun you had combing the beach for shells as a child? Or even as an adult ;-)

Southwest Florida has some of the best shelling beaches in the world! I previously wrote about it here.

There are approximately 400 species of multi-colored seashells in our area, from the commonplace scallop and clam to the exotic – tulips, olives, fragile paper fig shells and the rarest of the all, the brown speckled junonia. This poster lists the most common ones found on Naples' beaches.

What kind of seashells are common in your area?

22 comments:

Neva said...

NONE!! but I don't live near a beach...this is very unique.

Shammickite said...

I found a perfect moon shell on the beach at Ormond in Nov, it's so smooth and I love running my fingers over it, it feels so nice.
How's the weather?
I hear Florida is expecting frost and temps below freezing tonight.

Shammickite said...

I meant moon snail, not moon shell, and I also found a perfect sand dollar, the first one I have ever picked up in one piece.

rauf said...

There are some basic requirements to have sea shells in your area.
like palm trees, coconut trees, ships, a light house, Izzidee, i think i am forgetting something very important here.

freefalling said...

Really, really, really old ones.
Fossilized.
They are my favourites - hoary old buggers - tough as boot nails.
Never in one piece.

Janet said...

We are about 150 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico, but we have mussel shells! A sea once covered parts of the Black Belt area, and in certain places, the shells are found when plowing a garden.

Nikon said...

We've got lots :-)

Anonymous said...

Interesting post. My one daughter goes to Fort Meyers area somewhere to hunt shells. Not sure where.

Around here the biggest shells are from Snails.

The only others are millions of years old and are stuck in rocks I have all over the back yard in walls.

isa said...

Neva :-(

Ex - the frost came and went and, thankfully, did not damage much of the crops. We are back in the 70's today..

Rauf - a beach, perhaps?

Freefalling - "hoary old buggers"? I can tell you're in top form!

Rambling - hmm...you might be the only person I know with a mussel shell collection ;-)

Nikon - lier, lier, pants on fire ;-)

Abe - I wonder if you daughter goes shelling on Sanibel or Captiva islands...

Kunal Bhatia said...

hey, we've got shells on beaches in mumbai too, but not as many varieties as you seem to have in southwest florida. :)
Mindless Mumbai

Jo's-D-Eyes said...

hmmmmmmmmmm I love fish only not ehhhh the shelled fish hmmm is that a bad habit of me?

Have you eaten all 400 species? Or not yet of if not, How many did you eat until now?

Happy weekend wish from Holland

Susan said...

I've found a few sand dollars here, but mostly we don't see too many interesting shells. I'd love to see omse of the ones on that sign on my beach!

Jilly said...

I adore sand dollars. I brought some back from Sarasota years ago and still have a few - some broke in my travels to Australia and back. Beautiful.

I've never seen shells on the beach here - just pebbles or sand - but I find shells in the garden and of course you find them in the 'pudding' of Roquebrune village - as well as loads of fossils. All this land was once under the sea.

Carlos Lorenzo said...

I remember that post Isabella. I love seashells and still pick up some when I have a chance. At home I have a pretty good collection but they wouldn't ever get to be as beautiful as the ones you have in Florida. I wish you all the best this year Isabella.

Anonymous said...

I started to miss sunshine and open water, so, I came to Florida!
We have here blue mussels in the rivers and very tiny shells in the ground, but nothing like that in your post.
But still I love them. When I was practicing teaching, I made very big work about shells. I got them from museums and made about them a huge presentation.
I think, we have a big box of them in our children cabin still collected from beaches of Scotland.

I wish you full of joy in 2008!

Steve Cuddihy said...

I believe there was seashells in Minnesota at some time in the earths history, the only thing that is found today are fossilized remains from Millions of years ago.

I do have some seashells that I brought back from my trip to Florida almost 14 years ago. Now I wouldn't call these seashells native to Minnesota, but for modern day, these are the most common found in my area.

Twin Cities Daily Photo

annulla said...

Fascinating sign. I've never seen one like that and never even knew there was such a thing as a living shell!

Most of the shells I see on the beaches of Brooklyn come from clams, oysters and mussels.

Blather From Brooklyn

Kate said...

I don't know yet; I'll get up early tomorrow and comb the beach to find out.

Kala said...

We just went shell searching this past weekend but we dont have as many shells as you guys have on the beaches here- its just all sand! I wish we had a lot more. I see a lot of horse conch and Fighting Conch here. I think anyway.

Ming the Merciless said...

None but I have a couple of starfish shells on my shelves. I bought it at a store in the city a couple years ago.

Chica, Cienna, and Cali said...

i have my entire collection of Florida sea shells with me ....i dont think i will ever part from them ....no matter where I go!!!

Anonymous said...

I like the way they have a huge picture of the shells to make it easier for you to collect the interesting ones.......