Tuesday Evening Shelling

This evening at access #4, it was a pleasant sight to walk out onto the beach and see shells. The tide was going out, and had left shells scattered about, and also a few areas where the shells were about 3" deep.

There was cool wind blowing and the sun was hiding behind clouds some of the time, so it was very pleasant for the most part. But, when the sun wasn't covered by clouds, it got pretty hot. Someone's beach umbrella went flying down the beach, doing flips, just as we got there. A fisherman came wading in from the water, to go chasing after it.

During the rough surf and extra high tide, the water had gone up to the middle of the volleyball area at Mitchell's. There were several places where the surf had made trenches in the sand. In those, you could see layers of shells and sand exposed. I walked though one area like that and found two tiny juvenile horse conch shells, but that was all.

I only walked along side of the larger areas of shells. I didn't dig through any of them or look too closely. I would guess that nine out of ten times I bent over to check a shell, only to find it broken.

There were not many footprints in the sand, so I doubt the shells had been picked through much, if any, since the tide had started going out. There was only one person on the beach in front of Mitchell's, four or five people in front of the Blue Dolphin, and one young couple walking; during the time we were there.

In one area there was a tidal pool and I found a couple shells there. I found a nice sharks eye that was nearly hidden in the wet sand while I was walking.

After walking from access 4 to access 7, I found the largest amount of shells between 5 and 7. There are many nice shells waiting for someone to pick them up. There are especially, a lot of nice scallops. I have so many that I only pick up a shell now that is different from any I have or looks special to me for some reason. I pick up some shells because I know someone who uses that particular type for crafts. Everyone has their own idea of what is beautiful and special.

I took plenty of pictures for you cyber shellers. :-) I also took a quick picture of the shells carried home today, before I dropped them in a bleach bath. I haven't rinsed the shells from the Blind Pass adventure yet.

There were a couple of comments to a recent post, about the resident beach accesses, and if anyone could use them. The answer is yes, anyone can use them, but only residents who purchase a resident parking pass or have a disabled tag, can park there. You can walk or ride a bike; there are bicycle racks at some of them. These accesses are on West Gulf Drive after you pass Rabit Road. You could also stay at one of the properties located in that area to take advantage of the beach there.

There was also a question concerning the possibility of digging and incubating the turtle eggs: From what I have read there is some controversy surrounding relocation of turtle nests. Some think it is best to leave things to nature. Also, moving the nests removes the nutrients from the original dunes nesting areas. In some places they prefer to try moving the nests to a higher area.

Moving turtle eggs, can only be safely done within a few hours after nesting. After that time, the membrane attaches to the inside of the egg shell, if an egg is moved, it could cause the membrane to become detached and stop the egg from developing, so it would have to be done with extreme care.

The damage to our nests from the high surf is severe, in that the nests have been washed over by the sea water and has also left a deep covering of sand on many nests. Some of the nests still have the stakes etc, in tact, so there is still a glimmer of hope that some of the tiny turtles might make their way out.