The best chance of finding a keeper in the U.S. is along Florida’s beaches.  But first, there are some things to know.  Shelling along Florida’s Gulf coast is a totally different experience from shelling along Florida’s Atlantic beaches.  The sand is different – grainier and darker on the Atlantic side; whiter and powderier on the Gulf side.  The water is different – bigger waves roll in all the way from Africa on the Atlantic side; smaller ones build over the shallower, bowl-shaped Gulf of Mexico on the Gulf side.

And, the shells are different.  Atlantic coast shells are larger, thicker, are more intense in color and have stronger markings, a result of their more turbulent journey.  Eastern Banded Tulips, Crown Conchs, Florida Fighting Conchs, bright orange Lion Paws are great finds.  Gulf coast shells are smaller, more delicate in texture, paler in color.  Spiky Murexes, square-patterned Scotch Bonnets, pastel-pale Coquinas, glistening Olives and patterned Calico Scallops (with luck with both halves still attached) are barely dipped in soft pinks, mauves, pale yellows, light tans.

Complicating the quest even further, every beach is different, each known for particular finds.  Dedicated shellers go on quests, knowing just where to look for specific species; novices find them by chance.  Those chances are greatly improved by reading Chuck and Debbie Robinson’s “The Art of Shelling.”

Any list of Florida Gulf coast shelling hot spots always begins with the most famous: Sanibel Beach off Ft. Myers.  Jutting out in a westerly direction (rather than the north/south lay of the rest of the Gulf coast barrier islands), the prevailing winds and currents push up against the island making it a giant shell catcher.  So many shells have washed up over the eons that the sand is made up of minute shell particles which crackle and crunch pleasantly underfoot. 

So plentiful are the Murex, Tulips, Angel Wings, Turkey Wings, Lettered Olives, Cowries, Whelks, Scallops, Sunray Venuses, and Spiny Jewel Boxes on Sanibel that along the hotel lined beaches everyone does the “Sanibel Stoop”- the bent-over-at-the-waist, head-down, eyes-glued-to-the-sand, shell-seeking position! 

Not quite as crowded is the beach along Blind Pass, separating Sanibel Island from Captiva Island, or the more secluded Bowman’s Beach off Sanibel-Captiva Road.  Likewise, at the east tip of the island Lighthouse Beach, the site of the historic, still functioning Sanibel Lighthouse picturesquely nestled among the sea oats, is another somewhat less-traveled shelling spot. 

Collecting live shells on Sanibel is prohibited.  As a matter of fact, it’s just good practice not to collect live shells anywhere.  If a shell appears to have an inhabitant, leave it be.  There are plenty of empty ones out there for the taking.  The same goes for the popular, easy to find sand dollar.  If they are tanish-green, with a sanpapery surface, leave them in the water to see another day.  Look for those that are bleached out white, they’re pretty, delicate, and no longer alive.  Handle them gently as they’re also brittle and crumble easily.

Traveling in Florida with kids?  A stop in Venice, under an hour from Ft. Myers is a must.   Kids will treasure the fossilized sharks’ teeth they find, and find them they will!  There are so many sharks’ teeth along Venice Beach that the sand is a smoky gray!  Look for them, too, just north of the Venice Fishing Pier, where the long narrow stretch of black sand is loaded with these pre-historic finds. Carpsen Beach, just south of the Venice Airport, is another great place to find both shells and sharks’ teeth.

In the Sarasota area, the expansive curve of Turtle Beach on Siesta Key yields Calicos, Coquinas, Kitten Paws, Slipper Shells, and Sand Dollars.  In St. Petersburg, just over the Skyway bridge spanning the mouth of Tampa Bay is Fort DeSoto State Park, historically interesting, with fort remnants to see,  trails to walk, coves to kayak, places to fish, and beaches to shell.

Just to the north of Fort DeSoto, Shell Island, an uninhabited boomerang shaped island, is  accessible only by boat, the Shell Key Shuttle, which makes round trips from the bay side of Pass-A-Grille 3 times a day.  While there are no creature comforts on the island, it’s a delightful shelling experience especially on weekdays, when pleasure boats filled with party people aren’t anchored just off the beach.

Caladesi Island State Park just off shore from Dunedin and Clearwater Beach was Dr. Beach’s  “Top Beach in America” pick for 2008, and with good reason.   With a few more amenities than Shell Island, it, too, is accessible only by ferry departing from nearby Honeymoon Island and from Clearwater Beach.  Feeling far removed from the hubub of one of Florida’s most populated areas, it’s a joy to walk the still-pristine beach lined with sea oats and crisscrossed with purple beach morning glories, watch the wading egrets and herons carefully pursuing their catch, swim in clear Gulf waters, and find plenty of shells.  

Although your finds along Florida’s Atlantic beaches won’t be as numerous, your keepers will be big, beautiful, deep water shells.  In Palm Beach, the flats off Peanut Island at low tide might yield a Florida Fighting Conch or a Banded Tulip, but you have to take a water taxi to get there.  Here, the grassy flats are a better place to look than along the sandy beach, but you must wear tennis shoes for any flats wading as broken glass and sharp objects could lie buried just beneath the surface.

The beach along A1A between Fort Pierce and Vero Beach is dotted with stairs that lead up and over the beach dunes.  While there are homes and high rises along this stretch, there are still some areas with public accessibility.  The beach stroll is delightful; the chance of finding a keeper high.  A bit further north, along the 21 mile stretch of beach at Canaveral National Seashore/Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge, you’re sure to find Prickly Cockles, Shark Eyes, Turkey and Angel Wings, Lightning Whelks and Calico Scallops in tidal pools and on flats just off the beach.  Wading shoes are a must. 

The beaches around St. Augustine are good shelling places too – Vilano Beach, St. Augustine Beach, Anastasia Island Beach.  Quaint and historic St. Augustine, America’s oldest city, is an added bonus.  Imagine, you can shell around Matanzas Inlet used by the Spaniards as a back door entrance to their settlement guarded by still-intact Castillo San Marcos, made of coquina shells, a favorite regional 16th century building material!

Practice the Sanibel Stoop! 

Bring along your patience and a strong back.

Slather on sunscreen, slap on a hat.  

Start looking for those keepers.

Way back in April, when I posted “The Real Florida for Kids – Eco-discovery in Lowry Park Zoo,” I promised two more posts featuring special places in Florida where kids can truly experience Florida’s unique natural habitat. Well, it’s taken this long to get to part two: “The Mysterious Everglades.”

Imagine this. A river of grass: a slow-moving sheet of water spanning thousands of acres, sometimes seen, sometimes not, covered by golden sawgrass as far as the eye can see, and broken up only by hammock islands where cabbage palm, royal palm, live oak, gumbo limbo and West Indian mahogany thrive. There is a silence here. It’s a place of forbidding bogs, cypress knees protruding from dark water, spidery airplants clinging to tree limbs, life-sustaining mangroves, showy bromiliads, bright green fern, and the elusive ghost orchid.

It’s home of the resilient Miccosukee Indians, the slow-moving, fast-acting alligator, the sultry, endangered Florida panther, and long legged wading birds. It’s fascinating and fragile; controversial and compromised. (For adults, a great must-read is Michael Grunwold’s “The Swamp.”)

For kids it’s a fabulous one-of-a-kind adventure! They’ll love skimming over the endless sheet of water mirroring the blue sky and puffy cumulus clouds above while perched up high on an airboat. What a ride it is! It’s thrilling and exciting, and they’re sure to see alligators sunning motionless on a bank or moving silently through the water, with only snout, eyes, and a piece of broad back exposed. They’ll spot soft-shell turtles with long noses that serve them well as snorkels as they paddle just beneath the surface. They’ll see birds everywhere – long-legged wading ones: great blue herons, white ibises, snowy egrets; soaring, sharp-eyed ones: osprey and eagles; awkward-looking ones: anhingas perched on tree limbs with waterlogged outspread wings drying in the sun, and giant wood stork, appearing way too big to be balancing on cypress tree limbs.

For a quieter ride (airboats are run by airplane propellers and are very loud) in deeper water, take them on a guided boat tour out of Chocoloskee or Everglades City through the mangrove-lined estuaries of the isolated Ten Thousand Islands, where they’ll encounter slow-moving gentle manatee, playful dolphin and countless wading birds. It’s quiet and pristine, and riding through mangrove tunnels is awesome!

The magnificent Everglades can be accessed from both the southwest and the southeast coasts of Florida at various locations along US 41(Tamiami Trail) which traverses the Everglades from just outside of the Naples/Ft. Myers area, all the way to Miami.

From the west coast side, really interesting and exciting are either a full day Everglades trip (no children under 5 allowed) or half-day excursions (for kids of any age). Chokoloskee and Everglades City, both simple “old Florida” fishing communities tucked deep into the Everglades, are about a half hour out of Naples, and about an hour and a half out of Miami. Everglades National Park can be accessed at various visitor centers near Tamiami Trail. Closest to Miami is the main park entrance, the Ernest Coe Visitor Center in Homestead. Further west is Shark Valley Visitor Center, and closest to Florida’s west coast is Gulf Coast Visitor Center is at the intersection of Route 29 and Tamiami Trail near Everglades City.

On the Miami end of Tamiami Trail/US 41, airboat safaris depart from several concessions along the way, and the Miccosoukee Information Center and Cultural Center at MM 70 offers the chance to experience the lives of the Miccosoukee, descendents of Indians who escaped deep into the Everglades in the 1850s, successfully elluding deportation out west.

Take your kids to the Everglades … it’s fascinating and real.