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.
