Go Magazine

BEACHCOMBING: COLLECTING MEMORIES

By Joan Leotta

Seashells are the perfect souvenir from a Carolina beach vacation---they are local, lovely, plentiful and free!

Shelling transforms a lovely walk on a wide expanse of Carolina sand into a hunt for art. Mollusks, a variety of sea creatures, craft these shells as their home.

Shell collecting has been a part of seacoast enjoyment from the beginning of time. Shells have served as decoration, money, food, and the raw material for crafting eating and other utensils. Even today, shells are often used in jewelry and home décor.

700 Species
From the northernmost tip of the Outer Banks to the warm waters of Edisto Island near the Georgia border, more than 700 different shell varieties live off of the Carolina coast.

Among the many are the single shells (univalve) that include lettered olives, whelks, limpets, tulip shells, augers, scotch bonnets, and moon snail shells. Keyhole sand dollars decorate the beaches at low tide.

Several types of clam and arc shells, the great Atlantic cockle, oysters, the transparent jingle shell, and, scallops are among the double-shelled (bi-valve) beauties that ride the tide to shore in the Carolinas. The colors and shapes that thrill us as collectors, served a purpose in the animal’s life. Fossils, especially shark’s teeth, and sometimes sea glass often hide among the shells awaiting the sharp eye of a collector.

State Sea Shells
North and South Carolina both value their shells so much that they have selected a state seashell. North Carolina’s state shell is the curved and univalve, Scotch Bonnet. This shell is difficult to find, but success is more likely on Ocracoke or Shakelford Island.

The lettered olive, South Carolina’s state shell rolls onto the beaches even the heavily visited Myrtle Beach, Brunswick County Island beaches, and all of the beaches south of there to the Georgia line.
The type of shells that wash up depend on a variety of factors including the hunting grounds of the live shells offshore, the temperature of the water, the strength of the waves, even the slope of the particular beach.

The best beach for shelling is the one that you are visiting! No matter which beach you have chosen for your vacation you will find something lovely every day. There is never cause to be disappointed because the ocean always offers up something beautiful to those willing to look for it.

Special Finds Beaches
But there are some beaches that are known for “special finds.” Among these are North Carolina’s Ocracoke Island, Bogue Sound, Ocean Isle Beach and the Emerald Coast. South Carolina’s shelling stars go to Edisto Island, Huntington State Park Beach, and Bulls Island at Cape Romaine National Seashore. Generally a less busy beach and/or a barrier island beach provides an easier locale to find shells. But even the heavily trafficked Grand Strand in Myrtle Beach yields a wide variety of lovely olives, cockleshells, scallops, sunray Venus and more.

The Joy of Shelling:

For some, shelling is simply the gathering of materials to make jewelry or other crafts. For others, shelling is an end unto itself. My friend, Ginny Fleming from Wake Forest, N.C. who has spent a lifetime of vacations poking about for shells at Holden Beach, N.C., finds shelling to be a metaphor for all of life and is writing a book on just that topic!

While shelling you can also enjoy laughter of children building sandcastles, roar of the waves, the glint and glimmer of sunlight on the water, the soar and call of sea birds, and for early risers, the sun ascending slowly from the watery horizon.

Whatever your reason for plucking and preserving the shells from their sandy environs, shells are an ever present reminder of our relationship to the primordial sea and of the beauty that is there for us on Carolinas’ beaches.

Shell Resources
Many natural history museums display shells and fossils from the area. My favorite exhibits are at the N.C. Maritime Museum in Beaufort, N.C., the Museum of Coastal Carolina in Ocean Isle, N.C., the Coastal Discovery Museum in Hilton Head and at the Aurora Fossil Museum in Aurora, N.C.

Seashells of North Carolina, a paperback by Hugh J. Porter and Lynn Houser, provides photos of shells found in both Carolinas. The North Carolina Shell club website offers information on shelling in both states at www.ncshellclub.com.

Tips for collecting:

1. Take a beach walk early in the morning and walk along the high tide line looking for shells.
2. Go out at low tide when shell beds near shore are uncovered. (Local papers often carry tide tables. Many coastal hotels post tide times.) An hour before or after low tide is considered the “best” time to shell.
3. After a storm, many large and deepwater shells wash up on the beach.
4. Carry a plastic bag or a bucket and smaller plastic container or bag for really tiny delicate shells and fossils like shark’s teeth.
5. Check under pieces of shrub or seaweed on the beach. Look among rocks.
6. Flush out your finds with warm soapy water after collecting. Let them dry completely before taking them home.
7. Use mineral or baby oil to preserve color when displaying shells.
8. Never take a shell that has a live animal in it.
9. Check your finds against pictures to identify them.