Garrett junonia Sanibel Florida

Garrett The Seashell Cowboy rolled into town and lassoed this mighty fine JUNONIA yesterday!

Garrett junonia

He and his wife Beth were shelling at Lighthouse Beach last night when he saw those famous spots rolling in the surf then nagged it up. He was so happy to have found his JUNONIA there since he and Beth got married on the beach near the lighthouse this past June.

Garrett junonia ap

Since we’ve had some nice southwest winds this week and the Gulf Of Mexico has been churning a little, I wanted to check out Blind Pass Captiva just to see if anything had changed since my last visit I found a few OLIVES and FIGHTING CONCHS in the water but nothing on the beach. No shells on the beach still…

Blind Pass beach shellless

This is my theory (IMHO)… We only had a few days of really good shelling after Hurricane Isaac blew past us in the Gulf Of Mexico late August then the winds turned from strong west to strong east winds for weeks which took many of the shells back out to the gulf. Since Isaac brought lots of rain, Lake Okeechobee’s water level got too high so they had to release water into the Caloosahatchee River. Sanibel sits at the mouth of the river so we had some brackish looking water for a couple of weeks not really suitable for snorkeling. So….. it seems to reason to me that there are tons of shells that are just at the beach’s edge… just waiting to get pushed up onto the beaches with a good west wind blow. That’s why I haven’t been finding oodles shells on the beaches (other than the high wrack line still left over from Isaac) because they are still in the water. But the shellers that have been IN THE WATER have hit the jackpot in the past weeks like Garrett The Seashell Cowboy, Sam Da Shell Man and Alan The Toe Sheller. After looking at the beach at Blind Pass Captiva today, I was on my way back to the car because I didn’t find much on the beach when Garrett recognized me from meeting him in March. He was in the water finding lots of shells!

garrett shells blind pass florida

 Then he told me about the JUNONIA he found last night that he had locked in his car. Thanks for getting it out to show us Garrett! Hmmmm. I think I’ll head down to the Lighthouse Beach right now to see if anything other JUNONIA cousins are rolling in. Gotta run!

nutmeg  garrett blind pass