Garrett The Seashell Cowboy rolled into town and lassoed this mighty fine JUNONIA yesterday!
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.
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…
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!
 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!
Congrats Garrett … awesome find !!! Seems like there have been several of the big “J’S” found on Sanibel the last few weeks ….. so drooling !!!!! Oh how I love thee Sanibel !<3
Thanks again Pam for sharing all the awesome shells …….. drool # 2… LOL !!!
Save me one for December! How awesome!
Didn’t you get enough already with the YOLO gift card??? Just kidding!! :)
Thank you sooo much everyone it was a wonderful moment when we found it :P thanks for immortalizing it Pam. You do great justice to us shellers
Congrats Garrett….way to go !
Wow! Well done Garrett!
Great find! Congrats. I can’t wait to get down there!
what a beautiful junonia!
Congrats Garrett! Still searching for my Junonia :-)
Seems my next visit to Florida is going to be Sanibel! Just came home from the Keys visit last week, found some beautiful sponges along with some true tulips, and my pride and joy find was a tun, small size, then we were hunting on the coral in an area and a gentleman found a much larger tun and gave it to me! I was to happy. My tun collection is complete. After seeing all these Junonia’s that Sanibel has been giving lately, well that will be my next visit !
Can you post your shell pics? Where in the Keys were you shelling? Thanks! Sherri from MN
Beverly, glad you had a nice time shelling in the Florida Keys. If you are the same Beverly that exchanged pm’s with me on Trip Advisor in May & June, please send me a pm and tell me where you collected and what you found. I would enjoy hearing about it. MK
Great find!! Hope you are able to find the other 2 legends! I miss being there!
I got crafty and made a t- shirt idea for those who manage to find junonias (as an award recognizing the lucky one and Sanibel itself for their achievement. Tell me if you like it Pam. It’s on my face book ( Garrett Steenblik)
Yes you have been blessed to find a junonias. It is very neat that you had gotten married a year ago around the area you found the shell…..it was waiting for you as an anniversery present for you and your wife.
Can’t wait will be at the island soon and it my past visits the island has always given me many wonderful prizes..as I call them.
We came to Sanibel Feb 2010 and had a wonderful time and great shelling.
I can’t wait till I am there again.
Sorry I misread when you got married….but still it is so neat!!!!
We were at Blind Pass and Lighthouse Beach yesterday. Must have been there at high tide. Those waves were really rough. Didn’t find anything but some cockle shells, but we had fun racing up and down the beach with the waves. We could see the oodles of shells just under the breaking waves, but the beach is steep and, not knowing the conditions, didn’t venture into the water. Maybe tomorrow . . .
Good info. Was curious about the shelling lately. Was thinking of making the trek. Awesome finds.
Pam – Does the TSA allow shells to be brought on planes, either in checked baggage or carry-ons? Might be a dumb question but you never know with these folks.
Thanks
Carol, yes, you can take shells on the plane although I suggest you make sure they are all good and clean with no odor. Good luck!
Yes, when you are traveling inside the USA, there are no problems with taking shells with you in your luggage, whether carry-on or checked.
However, when you visit other countries, such as for example most of the Caribbean islands, many of those countries don’t allow you to take home their local shells without a special permit to do so, and thus they may confiscate the shells at the airport when you are leaving.
And if you have been in another country and are entering or reentering the USA with a shell of the queen conch and/or coral pieces (both hard corals and soft corals such as sea whips and sea fans) in your luggage, those are likely to be confiscated at the airport when you arrive in the USA, because of the international CITES agreement, which bans their importation into the USA.
One of my favorites, I pinned it.
So jealous of Garrett! :)
Oh, and Pam, congrats on having a shelling package in conjunction with the Island Inn. I just received the email regarding the package. Unfortunately I can’t make it for this one in January, but in case any of your other fans can, below is the link to have your vacation hosted by the infamous Pam! :)
http://www.islandinnsanibel.com/guided-shelling-package
I hope you have other excursions for all that come to Sanibel – you are in such demand! :)
HeeHeeHee! Yes Maureen! I’m so excited too to be a part of this package. I was going to save the announcement for next week (iLS 3 year anniversary!) but maybe I’ll have to break the news earlier. Exciting! Thank you so much for your sweet comment. ;)
That is so cool, Pam! If this endeavor doesn’t gobble up all your free time (what free time?), you could offer excursions to the general masses. You’d probably have to deputize some helpers, or perhaps clone yourself and Clark!
I’d die to give people shelling tours :P If i could help i’d do it for free
Awwww, Pammy, you are such a sweetheart. :)
Whoops, Garrett, You are such a sweetheart! Considering your technical responses, it makes me wonder if you are in a scientific field. Would you consider taking a look at a couple of photos I have of a mystery shell? I posted it to Pam’s Facebook page and Lee Merrill of Guantanamo Bay came back with a West Indian Top shell. It really does look like that, But! The person that gave it to me said that her old boyfriend found it in a field in NJ! She was a coworker, and she gave it to me after I gushed over it, she wasn’t attached to it. Anyway, she said that he was in a scientific area, geologist? I don’t remember, but I think it was unearthed. Soooo, because it looks very old, I wonder if it could be from when the ocean covered much of the east coast. But it still has color, so maybe not, but what’s it doing in a NJ field????
Sorry you ever responded yet? :)
I swear – I know – I kick my self – – Will there be any shells left when I come there in March/April??? I think you guys are collecting all the good stuff. Please, please, please save some for me.
Janet in AZ
We’re coming in Jan/Feb. Hope the shelling is good. I’ve brought shells home in my carry on and checked luggage. I think the TSA checks my checked in luggage because they see the bags of lumps(sturdy shells like conchs, murexes etc). Even in the carry on pack well. Pam I found out that a shell I found in January was not a distorted false angel wing , but a piddock. I love looking at all the pictures. I saw a painted egg cockle in one of your pictures in September. Are you going to put it on your ID chart?
Pat
Good idea Pat. I have the Painted Egg Cockle listed as just “Egg Cockle” on the ID (as well as a few other Cockles) but I need to distinguish a bit better now. I’d like to make it as accurate as possible so Thank you for your suggestion!
Congrats. Garrett beautiful shell. We were on Sanibel last week and there were lots of shells in the shallow water. But, nothing big just olives, tulips, murexs, conchs, and whelks. The big shells were past the sand bars in the deep water where Sam got he’s.
Just a question. When you find shells in deep water, aren’t they live? I
Garrett, very nice shells! Love the junonia, of course, and the white conch is very nice!
The gulf looks so beautiful right now on the *Island Inn webcam* I just had to post here. It’s sparkling like diamonds!! (Just click on “webcams” at the top of Pam’s page here to find the Island Inn webcam – it’s the first one listed.)
Nice wedding gift, Seashell Cowboy! Now I have a question – I don’t think I’ve ever seen a scummy or barnacle laden Junonia. Is it because they dwell in the deep end of the pool? Looks like they arrive on shore in perfect condition, like my beloved olives. But I doubt they they have the grooming habits of the olive since they don’t have the sheen. My kind of shell – beautiful, rare, and no cleaning required!
(the Seashell cowboy says :P) olives are smooth because they dwell beneath the sand :3 My first junonia did have a barnacle on it. I think barnacle development happens in the shallows actually as most barnacles (75% of species) live in less than the junonias living depths (250 feet – 300 feet) to catch plankton. I theorize that a junonia that is clean most likely rolled it’s way to shore quickly with little idle time being still for the sessile barnacles to develop.
Thanks for the response! On olives, that makes sense, but I also thought that the animal comes out of his shell (no wallflower,he) and wraps himself around the shell, which is what creates the high polish. No?
The animal is constantly around the lip of the shell. The membrane that covers the lip and secretes the calcium carbonate to make the shell is called the mantle. While most shells don’t actually groom the outer part of their shell take the alphabet cone as an example( 70 percent of it’s original inner lining is actually reabsorbed as it grows and its laid onto the outer lip and sides as it grows. This sort of “grooming” adds strength and makes room for the mollusc. Think of shells as buildings for their molluscan inhabitants and they are constantly refurbishing and renovating them for a better home.
@ sanibelle the trochus (top shell) you have mentioned I’d have to see to identify (I’m having trouble finding it :P). But yes the world was once covered in water so it’s no suprise that a low lying area may have fossil shells! For goodness sakes they find crinoids and trilobites in Georgia’s mountains! :D If you like fossil seashells I have a place for you to “shell” in sanibel for 5,000,000 year old shells there are some places in fort myers too.
Garrett, are you, per chance, one of the Shell Raisers? If so, I could post the photos to your site, right? I’m still new to Facebook, so I’m not too savy about it. If not, maybe you could send me your email and I’ll email the photos. I’d love to hear about Sanibel fossil sites! I have another cool shell, that I assume is fossilized. It’s broken, and the animal is exposed, hard as rock. So it became fossilized with the mollusk still attached. Maybe this isn’t so unusual, but it’s my first. It washed up on the shore at the lighthouse end.
My email is gsteenblik@yahoo,com and my facebook is Garrett Steenblik. I’d love to tell you all i know so hit me up :3
I;m actually self taught :P
i feel flattered