fighting conch sanibel november

These are the beautiful treasures we are used to seeing on Sanibel after strong winds from the Gulf Of Mexico.

gulfside city park beach shells november

Brittany (Georgia) and her dad Steve (Kentucky) found plenty of BANDED TULIPS, LIGHTNING WHELKS, LETTERED OLIVES and APPLE MUREXES at Gulfside City Park beach yesterday.

brittany atl steve ky shelling

The weird thing? Those SEA SQUIRTS are back again by the gazillions – just like in September at Blind Pass like I showed you in the post Sanibel Sea Squirt Spectacle.

sea squirts on sanibel gscp

But this time there were more shells mixed in with them. Look at those beautiful shells Clark found! He found that awesome ALPHABET CONE  within 10 minutes of wading in the water. He said all of these shells were found by blind scooping in the water with his trusty shelling backhoe.

found shells

We found unbelievably huge SEA PORK chunks all over the beach as well. SEA PORK is a TUNICATE as well so its in the same family as the SEA SQUIRTS.

orange sea pork sanibel november

There were quite a few baby STARFISH along the shore line as well. This little one was still alive so I put it back in the water for a chance of survival.

starfish on dosinia

 

Clark showed me another huge glob of SEA PORK. Wowza! They are so pretty when they are this bright orange. Im not sure if its true, but I read somewhere that if SEA PORK has a bright color like this to it, it is still alive (well, the zooids that live inside might be still alive). So this one went back in the water.

orange sea pork tunicate

I found plenty of PURPLE SEA WHIPS but I dint find any that had the ONE TOOTH SIMNIAS or WINGED OYSTERS on them.

purple sea whip

I’ve never seen so many different types of SPONGES washed up…

different colors of sponges sanibel

 

This was probably the biggest and most perfect DEAD MANS FINGER sponge Ive ever seen.

dead man fingers sponge sanibel

There were even other weird TUNICATES hiding within the SEA PORK and SPONGES. This one was a little more gooey but had bright orange lobes just like some of the other SEA PORK TUNICATES. After such high winds, its so interesting to see all of the different plants and creatures that get washed up on our beaches. It’s like our own private touch tank – I love it!

soft orange sanibel tunicate

The rewards are even greater when we uncover little beauties like these to admire.

november 2014 sanibel shells

 

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iLoveShelling 5 shellaversary iis