tropical storm debby seashells

 The seashell aftermath on Sanibel left by Tropical Storm Debby was a sight to shellebrate. Seriously… buckets of shells lined the beach surrounding the Sanibel Lighthouse.

shell buckets

Not only were there buckets overflowing with shells, there were shell bags upon shell bags lining the shoreline.

Taylor shell bag

taylor seashell bags

shell bag with angel wings

 Okay, hold on….take a breath before I show you this next photo of the beach next to the Sanibel fishing pier.  There were PEN SHELLS, FIGHTING CONCHS, LIGHTNING WHELKS, BANDED and TRUE TULIPS, HORSE CONCHS and a gazillion MILLIPEDE STARFISH. You ready?

sanibel seashell beach

 Taylor from New York was one of the lucky shellers that found this gorgeous TRUE TULIP and lots of really nice size LIGHTNING WHELKS (4th pic from the top).

Taylor NY true tulip

I couldn’t believe it when Taylor’s mom showed me an ANGELWING  PAIR. Yes! I said “PAIR”! They found it right there near the pier. Awesome!

angelwing pair lighthouse sanibel

 I can’t tell you how much fun it was to meet Jesse from Ormond Beach, FL. He was catching fish AND catching shells!

jesse seashells cones

 He had buckets of shells but these were a few of his best finds of the morning… 2 awesome ALPHABET CONES, a deep orange TRUE TULIP and I hope you can tell how unusually orange his LIGHTNING WHELK is.

jesse seashells sanibel pier

 Jesse was shelling with his beautiful family who all found unbelievable treasures- Chris, Jamie, Jordyn, Patty, Jeese and Jake.

beach family jesse

 Eddie from Orlando, FL had lots of seashell loot as well…

eddie orlando to sanibel beach

 He found this stunning SUNRAY VENUS along with LIGHTNING WHELKS and collected ATLANTIC GIANT COCKLES as well.

sunray venus, whelks sanibel

There were seashells everywhere!  Sarah Elizabeth found this beautiful LIGHTNING WHELK in high tide line among the tree roots…

sarah elizabeth alabama whelk sanibel

 Ilicia (GA) wasn’t just collecting shells, she had her eye on the BEACH BLING as well. She found this very cool vertebrae from some kind of marine animal.

ilicia GA sanibel bone

 Here’s a closer look in case you might know which marine animal it came from. Cool, huh?

fish vertebrae found sanibel

And Ilicia found a piece of a SEA TURTLE SHELL …

sea turtle shell shard

 I told you she was collecting shell too, right? Yep, she found a SCOTCH BONNET…

scotch bonnet ilicia SANIBEL

 I found Michael from Melbourne, Florida plopped down at the water’s edge filling his bag with ANGELWINGS and SANIBEL SIX shells.

michael melbourne florida seashells sanibel

 After Tropical Storm Debby churned the Gulf Of Mexico for 4 days, Cara from Georgia couldn’t have been happier to have been on Sanibel to reap the shelling rewards of Mother Nature.

cara ga seashell bucket

As she was hauling her buckets of seashell gold, she told me she had found a beat up JUNONIA. I had to see it. Even though it’s a little rough around the edges, it’s still a beautiful keeper- Congrats! Oh, and btw, I gotta get me some of that cute nail polish too!

cara old junonia sanibel

 My shelling buddy Jane found a nice HORSIE CONCH and a LIGHTNING WHELK…

jane whelk horsie

 Wanna see my best finds? There were gazillions of LIGHTNING WHELKS everywhere and oodles of LIVE HORSE CONCHS but I finally found a huge empty HORSIE and a pretty good size WHELK. Oh yay a, baby! It was sure worth the wait. Thanks Debby!

horse conch sanibel ts debby