shells

Does Collecting Seashells Really Harm Beaches?

Don’t you feel guilty about collecting seashells? Apparently some people think you should.

When I found this article entitled, “Hey Tourists: Leave Those Shells on The Beach Would Ya?” at the Care2.com site, I had to read it. And then I shook my head.
After all, I write about collecting seashells and that post is saying it is not a good idea. But what is the reasoning behind this? Well, I read that tourism to beaches has increased so much that the collecting of seashells is in danger of hampering the coastline. Shells that could be used by hermit crabs as homes, and by sea birds as nesting material (huh?), and in beach stabilization. Okay, the study was done over a 30 year period on beaches in the Mediterranean, where tourism to the coast has increased three fold.

Sorry folks but I find it incredibly hard to believe that tourists are collecting THAT many seashells and taking them back home. How much room do you leave in your suitcase for shells when you take a vacation to the shore? And even if they are significantly hoarding shells, these are most likely empty shells. What about the living organisms that are dredged up with fishing nets, and selected for food, and sold in shops? These are the ones doing the most damage, not a simple vacationer.

east coast florida beach shells — Seashells and beach finds along the east coast of Florida

Also the damage done to the coast from building, driving on the sand and polluting the water has to be much greater. And the study says that this was mainly a way to account for shell loss due to beachcombing, and nothing else. But it definitely places the most blame on tourists. In fact it is titled: Vanishing Clams on an Iberian Beach: Local Consequences and Global Implications of Accelerating Loss of Shells to Tourism. Read the whole study here.

So do we see negative effects from shell collecting? I haven’t heard of any. Just a doomsday story about how tourists are silently wrecking the beaches. What I find incredibly typical is that all the comments after the “Hey Tourists” post have people apologizing for shelling, and promising to never do it again. Lemmings.
Go ahead and take a few (unoccupied) shells home people… good grief.

Can the Mangroves Survive This Oil Spill?

The first time I heard of the oil drilling platform disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, I immediately thought about Sanibel Island – and the Florida and gulf coastline – that is home to a huge and diverse variety of land and marine animals, including the mollusks.

The oil spill will affect every living thing in those waters in a very negative way. And mollusks, the animals in the shells, live at all depths of the ocean, but an important area for not only mollusks, but fish, birds, reptiles and other wildlife is the mangrove areas.

The mangroves, where many animals thrive, are plants living near or in the water line along the coast or inlets in salt water. Typically the mangrove trees have lots of roots above and below water and aid in protecting the coast from erosion. They are also home to many types of mollusks. The water is saline, or brackish, but shallow and serves as a place of protection among the root systems. Oil on mangrove roots kills the trees by not allowing oxygen in.

In fact, “Florida’s fisheries would suffer a dramatic decline without access to healthy mangrove habitats.” is an excerpt taken from “Ichthyology” in the section about the importance of mangroves and how they serve as breeding grounds for all kinds of fish and mollusks as well as shrimp and oysters. This page tells of the detrimental impact of disasters, including oil spills and it leaves me wondering how on earth an oil spill this enormous can ever be cleaned up before catastrophic damage is done.

Mollusks, either eat plants and algae or other animals. If their food sources are covered in oil, or the creatures they eat have been affected by the oil, it will be passed on to the creature who eats it. If the mangroves die, where will marine life go who depend on mangrove areas for protection and how will a lack of protection from erosion affect our coastline and the fishing industry?

I suppose that only long term studies can tell us exactly how great an impact this latest disaster has been, but I am not looking forward to the results when what we can see already is so disturbing.

Jingle Shells aka Mermaids’ Toenails

Jingle shells (Anomia ephippium) are not hard to find on the beaches of Florida. They can also be found from Massachusetts to Brazil according to my seashell ID book.

They have been given the nickname “Mermaid’s Toenails” and I can see why. They are wrinkled and polished looking and come in a variety of translucent colors from shades of orange to dark gray, with white and off-white being common as well.

Jingle shells in pretty peach, yellow, white and silver colors — Jingle shells come in pretty colors.

black and silver jingle shells — Jingle shells which have turned black due to being buried in sediment before eventually washing ashore. Read more about black seashells here.

The “jingle” part of their name comes from the fact that they make a jingling sound when a group of them is collected and shaken around in your pocket or pail. Their thinness does not mean they are fragile, in fact they are very sturdy little shells that measure around one to two inches across. The pretty variety of colors makes them perfect for display or creating crafts and they add interest in a jar of shells.

The mollusk that makes the shell usually attaches itself to something – a rock or even another larger shell – in the ocean. It also takes the form of the item it attaches to which would explain it’s bumpy appearance. Then, when the bivalve shell splits apart – for whatever reason, only one half washes up on shore. The other half is still attached to the place where it lived, or breaks since it is the thinner part of the shell. You will most likely not find a jingle shell in two parts on the beach and the part you do find is probably the left half.