My 3 Minute Find

I found an amazing shelling spot today! When I checked out the beach in front of Casa Ybel Resort, I looked up the beach to the right and saw the beach forming a little peak with a couple of people shelling in the surf. I headed straight for it and found a ton of shells rolling up in the surf. I wasn’t on the beach 3 minutes when I looked down and picked up this HORSE CONCH.

Catching the shells as they roll in

I saw Mark from Carlsbad, New Mexico catching some nice NUTMEGS and WHELKS then introduced me to his nephew, Shane. Shane found 3 nice ALPHABET CONES! He just scooped up this 3 1/2 inch ALPHABET beauty in his net along with a FIGHTING CONCH and a MUREX…….this was one scoop that he got all 3 shells.

Shane with a 3 1/2 inch alphabet cone

Mark and his brother Stan (Shane’s dad) have been coming to Sanibel since 1974 with their families so they are long time shellers. Sorry, Mark and Stan, but I think Shane kicked your butts out there today finding 3 ALPHABET CONES ……and maybe more. They were still out there when I left.

Mark, Shane and Stan

I also ran into another guy…Ron from Washington D.C. and he found a nice HORSE CONCH too. It was around the size of mine but maybe bigger. I guess I have to hand it over to the guys today…they won the “who got the best shells today” contest.

Ron's horse conch, tulip, murex and whelks

To top it all off, I got an update on Laura D.’s collection. She found another huge HORSE CONCH and lots more. Here are her treasures……just 2 days worth of shelling on Sanibel. Wow!

Laura D's 2 day shell collection