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Friday, April 29, 2011

The "Homes from the Sea: Part 2" Story

It was an ordinary day. Searching through my "Seashells of the World" Golden Guide to find all the shells that I have not identified as of yet. Some are hard to find, so I try to get as close as I can to the correct name. This is the final part of my story and will feature shells that we have found in different parts of the world or have purchased during our travels. Many countries and islands do not allow you to leave the island with shells or sea creatures, so we always honor that and purchase what we want from local stores on the island. We have made an effort to limit what we accumulate from our trips, because THERE IS NO MORE PLACE TO PUT THEM! But, isn't that pretty much the same with any hobby that people have. Enjoy the shells and creatures that follow. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The Sea Urchin comes from the same family as the Starfish and Sand Dollar. We have found many in a variety of colors,over the years. They have tentacles that protrude from the points on them and can hurt really bad if you get in contact with them. I tramped on one while snorkeling and they are very painful.

The Sea Biscuit is an amazing creature that is gracefully shaped and has a naturally occurring star pattern on its back. We have found many on our travels throughout the Caribbean.

This is a small Chambered Nautilus and is found primarily in the Pacific. Some people cut them in half to display them showing the different chambers inside. We purchased this one.

The Abalone shell is one that we purchased. Never saw one on any of my snorkel trips. The iridescent shell is sometimes used for jewelry. Over 100 species are known.

These are American Cowries that have glossy, china-like shells. Most of the 190 or so species are relatively common in tropical seas. Both were purchased.

These are Florida worm shells of varying sizes and ages. They are actually a snail.

This is a shell that probably came from the tropics. It is a Wing Oyster, or 1/2 of it, and seldom produces a pearl. I looks as if it had been highly polished.

This is an Eastern American Scallop that we purchased. It is about 6" across. I use them for my stained glass window panels, but some people buy them for cooking. They do come in a variety of sizes.

This is an Atlantic Bay Scallop shell that we also purchased. As you can see it is about 5 1/2" across and has beautiful colors.

A few varieties of star fish. We have nine varieties that vary in size from 1/2" to one that is 8" across. All are different and beautiful. We only found one that we kept for our collection. Most that we see are alive, hence the reason that we buy them for our collection.

This is a sea horse, or the remnants of one. We found it along the edge of a beach in St. Croix. They are really small as you can see by the measurements on the scale below it.

This 12" by 6" shell was purchased in St. Martin as we exited the ferry from Pinel Island a few years ago. It is perhaps the most beautiful shell I have. The girl we purchased it from said her father had found it in the waters off of St. Martin. It is a Caribbean Triton Trumpet. By breaking off the bottom tip, you came actually blow into it and it allegedly sounds like a trumpet. Paid $20 for the shell.

This is my fish coffee table that is covered with some of our conch shells. The Pink or Queen conch at the rear of the table is about 12" long and 8" high and came from the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean. Carol and our friend Just Sue went searching for them in the water behind a beach restaurant and found about 100 of them. The restaurant owner, who had extracted the conch from the shell and thrown them in the water, told them to take all they wanted, but at about 4 to 5 pounds each, one was enough.

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