Blog The Beach

Sebastian Inlet beaches have few shells. At least few whole shells. There are lots of shell fragments all over the beach and mixed in with the sand. In fact the shell fragments give Sebastian Inlet’s beaches a warm brown color. One of the things I noticed is that unlike most beaches in Florida, Sebastian Inlet beaches have quite a few highly polished shell fragments like those in the photo above. They look as though they’ve been in a rock tumbler for a month being polished to be made into jewelry.

This phenomenon is apparently the result of the powerful wave action near the jetty. This beach has a powerful shore pound and a steep beach, which seems to result in the shell fragments being abraded for long periods of time and achieving a high polish. I can’t think of any other explanation.

I also noticed a heavy shore pound down in the Vero Beach area, but I don’t recall finding the polished shells, so perhaps there are other factors as well at Sebastian.

The polishing really brings out the beautiful colors in the shells.

Above you can see the swells breaking forcefully directly on the sand at Sebastian Inlet. Some of these Atlantic ocean swells were 3 feet high as they smacked down on the sand with a powerful boom.

[Lettered olive (Oliva sayana)]

One evening during March as I was walking along St. Pete Beach I discovered hundreds of these live lettered olive shells by the water’s edge. They are one of the most beautiful shells to be found on Florida beaches because of their intricate patterns and because they have the most brilliant shine you can imagine.

They are often overlooked because they move very slowly and spend much of their time half buried in the wet sand. I pointed them out to several families playing on the beach and they were amazed that they had not notice these beautiful shells.

If you want to take one home, please wait until you find one that is not alive. Better to leave the live ones to grow and reproduce. It isn’t hard to find olive shells that are no longer living.

The most famous place in Florida for finding great shells is Sanibel Island. Take a look at this great video clip as Kim Brock, of the Best Of Sanibel Captiva website, explains some of the great shells and other curious finds awaiting you on Sanibel’s beaches.

www.bestofsanibelcaptiva.com