wintersbk said:
Hi, have you thought about going to Shell Island in St Andrews recreational area? Its in the very east end of Panama City, great for a day trip!!! tons of shells and calm water for snorkling
Shells
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Hi, have you thought about going to Shell Island in St Andrews recreational area? Its in the very east end of Panama City, great for a day trip!!! tons of shells and calm water for snorkling
They don't call it Shell Island for nothing. It is a great place, but as someone else posted in pink script, make it a day trip. Shell Island is more than a days walk from Seagrove.
I suppose it makes sense to find out when low tide is before heading out to shell island on the shuttle, right? Or doesn't low or high tide matter on shell island (forgive any ignorance showing here...).
The beach renourishment projects are mainly responsible for there being not many shells on the beaches. Every so often, especially after a big storm, the army corps of engineers hires a bunch of cajuns to come out and dredge a few hundred million cubic yards of underwater sand and spew it back up on the beach to protect the beach-side dwellings. This exposes raw sand with no shells underwater to be washed up and covers any shells that were already on the beach. So no shells, except some truly hardy super-burrowers like dosnias or tidal-zone donaxs, at least until the littoral ecosystem recovers, which takes about 2 years with no hurricanes or other beach erosion to make the feds do it all again. They're just now starting up PCB renourishment for Ivan damage at the "western end of the federal project area (just east of Carillon Beach) and proceed east for four miles" - http://thebeachloversbeach.com/special.php?ID=20.
The absolute best place for beach shells, bar none, is Port St. Joe Peninsula State Park near Cape San Blas. If you look at the map, as you move east and south from Destin, thru PCB, thru Apalachicola and past Port St. Joe, there's this huge finger of land that sticks out and up to the left, and at the tip of the finger is the state park and beyond it is 11 miles of completely untrekked beaches in the NWR system. It is worth the trip just once if you've never been! It's amazing! I swear it looks like absolutely nobody's ever been there before you. There are three- to five-inch deep layers of shells, mostly arks and cockles, on the ocean-side beach. It is absolutely pitch black at night. Don't step on any sea-turtle nests and don't take any live shells. Note: During sea-turtle nesting season a red shield is required for any night-time flashlight use and no lights, such as campfires, can be visible from the beach so as not to affect the turtles' navigation.
The absolute best place for beach shells, bar none, is Port St. Joe Peninsula State Park near Cape San Blas. If you look at the map, as you move east and south from Destin, thru PCB, thru Apalachicola and past Port St. Joe, there's this huge finger of land that sticks out and up to the left, and at the tip of the finger is the state park and beyond it is 11 miles of completely untrekked beaches in the NWR system. It is worth the trip just once if you've never been! It's amazing! I swear it looks like absolutely nobody's ever been there before you. There are three- to five-inch deep layers of shells, mostly arks and cockles, on the ocean-side beach. It is absolutely pitch black at night. Don't step on any sea-turtle nests and don't take any live shells. Note: During sea-turtle nesting season a red shield is required for any night-time flashlight use and no lights, such as campfires, can be visible from the beach so as not to affect the turtles' navigation.