Shelling at the beach; Sea Shell Hunting at South Marco Island during negative low tide.

hello beach friends today we're going to a new beach we are going to check out south marco island we've been to marco island twice up at tigertail and i wanted to check out the south part of the island we're going to find a whole bunch of shells we are going to see some live lettered olives i find another albino shell and we're going to see a massive shell pile so i just have all sorts of fun stuff planned for us today can't wait to get to it [Music] [Applause] [Music] so here we are in south marco island the public parking down here is a little bit off the beach not too bad though you just kind of gotta scurry around a corner across the street and then you're gonna walk down this tree-lined sidewalk it was not that far of a walk if you're bringing your chairs and your umbrellas and all that kind of stuff i'm going to recommend you get a buggy because it was a little bit of a walk but since it was paved it really wasn't so bad so once we get down there it's negative low tide and of course i'm first going to head right for the water and i find this lovely horse so that's a good start to the day now i mentioned earlier it was negative low tide so these guys are probably a little confused they normally would be underwater and right now they're not and we're going to find a whole bunch of them these are a couple they were everywhere and we'll talk a little bit more about them a little bit later in the video there's another one yeah they were just everywhere it wasn't that long ago that i'd never actually seen a live one and now i get to see them all the time so that's kind of fun look at them just digging up the beach yep all right well let's just go get some shells like this lovely banded tulip nice rookie shell all right looks like we got some cloudy water which is kind of like a game to me makes it a little bit more of a challenge oh what did i get okay got a shark eye it's a swell shell guys look at that it's not even broken that is a expired sand dollar perfectly safe to take home that is huge right on now my husband found this guy we got a lot going on here we got a crab on top of a hermit crab along with a barnacle that's on the hermit crab and all sorts of other organisms and whatnot going on this shell which is too bad because it really is a lovely shell yeah that would have cleaned up real nice however looks like this guy he found it first that is a blue eyed hermit crab they're one of the bigger ones i seem to come across now and then and they're pretty awesome so my husband brought him over for me to check out we're just going to go put them back where we found them oh another tulip another banded tulip oh he's in good shape that's a pretty fine and it was early that's the way i like it nice and early try to get there before everybody else and it was lovely it looks like i found myself a lightning milk if they got good color they're a little bit easier to find and here we have again probably because of the color that's a calico scallop managed to score that guy and another lightning milk okay it's kind of fun what do we got here another like we got somebody in there that is not a keeper i actually don't think that's a hermit crab i think that's some sort of other crab but either the case we just put them back oh an alphabet cone yay he's in pretty good shape not the best one i've ever found but that's still a decent score and this is very pretty i love the florida fighting conks nice buttery color nice and clean oh wow all right awesome i love the knobs on that guy he's nice and knobby yep just got him right out of the water up what did we get all right we got a twofer we got a lightning whelk and uh he's chipped but we'll hold on to this lightning welcome uh oh i think i see something else what did i get oh another lightning walk all right that first one was chipped but that's okay it's only on the other side and i managed to get this nutmeg kind of gotta be grabby yep that is a great little nutmeg sturdy little guy oh and a letter to olive you love the glossy pointy guys oh they're awesome and we got ourselves another banded tulip i know that well i've been told they're rookie shells i don't care i like them oh and a shark eye part of the moon snail family he's got a fun little red eye looks like another tulip yeah oh these are great size all right a little bit bigger that's cool they don't get as big as the true tulips and i don't find the true tulips that often so just have to stick to the banded ones for now and a lettered olive glossy and pointy and a nutmeg just sitting there on this little shell pile oh another lightning milk what else we got there's all sorts of stuff here looks like i found myself a hermit crab hey buddy okay we got ourselves a chestnut turban a shark guy and an olive pretty alphabet cone oh he's real nice and it looks like we got a bunch of goodies some shark eye olives broken nutmeg another tulip and a horse all sorts of good stuff ooh a florida cone and an apple muric's and a lightning milk now when someone walks up to me and starts handing me shells i think i'm going to keep them more that's big old olive big old shark eye we got a banded tulip oh an apple muric's and not in the right order sorry guys and then a florida cone on the bottom there nice and got another tulip shark eye and olive woohoo all right we're doing pretty good on the tulips today and then we have two body nauticus the colorful moon snails we have a florida cone in there and then another olive so my husband was having a good time picking through this big old shell pile i got myself an olive and a another banded tulip it was a big old shell pile i suspect that during regular tides you're probably not accessible over here nice pretty dark lightning welcome oh he's cool oh another lettered olive we got those two uh requirements the shininess and the pointiness oh looks like looks like i ran up onto the beach and found myself a little beat up top snail i like the underneath the color though it's nice and shiny pearly oh what do we got here looks like a critter looks like a sea star or starfish what do we got i can try to pick them up safely here we have a lined sea star kind of obvious where it gets its name he is alive and well uh how fun is that he's big all right so i'll just check him out and kind of put him back where we found him i want apple murex in pretty good shape and another banded tulip yep doing good on the tulips today speaking of tulips here we have another one but this guy is alive and well he's got him his little operculum there see it right there that's his operculum his little trapdoor so that what he uses to close himself in the shell and protect himself i'll put him back where we found him looks like husband's got another deposit we have ourselves another banded tulip all right doing real good on those today a couple of olives is it shiny it looks kind of shiny pretty color on that apple mirex and then we got ourselves another big fat olive oh i love the big fat ones awesome it looks like i found myself a live critter yeah he's alive still so i'll just kind of take a peek and put him back that is another banded tulip alive and well i'm gonna get him back in the water oh a pair welk that's got some nice color those are pretty nice score oh and a lace mirrors not the laciest not the most colorful but still a decent shell another short guy that's a nice big guy this red eye oh an apple mirror x he's got great color on him and those little white barnacles will pick off no problem we got ourselves two more banded tulips oh another apple muric's a nutmeg and another apple mirex so we are we're finding shells by the handful it it was pretty fun uh another deposit some more tulips some more olives a shark eye and that guy is an atlantic slipper snail i don't normally pick those up but that's actually kind of cool more tulips yay those are awesome and two more shark eyes we got one with a red eye and one red eye and a black eye oh and a handful of olives now that part of the shell facing us that's actually the front of the olive and then that pointy part is the back and more oh another cone so from top we got a banded tulip horse nutmeg alphabet cone top snail and short guy now this i noticed was a very different shape that i believe believe is a rose murex however it's not very rosy but because of the shape i'm very very convinced that that is what that shell is which is cool because we've never found one all right so after taking some shell deposits i made my way back over see what other kind of goodies i could find we got ourselves another calico scallop complete with a matching barnacle and another kind of discolored scallop i did see that lightning well clear it probably was chipped or something i know you guys will tell me i see a tool up there too again probably chipped but there were definitely good stuff to pick through lots of barnacles we'll just leave him but my favorite shelling is this it's in the water i love the challenge even though sometimes i pick up broken stuff i'll get stuff like this oh i know we found a couple today but that's an awesome little find all right what have i got oh got myself a big fat littered olive very cool no i don't have enough and another calico scallop a little broken barnacle on him he's kind of pretty okay i made my way over to this tide pool see if there's any goodies in here got ourselves a broken nut bag broken tulip all right so so far not so good another one oh well can't hurt to look you never know and i see just a little something poking out and i got myself another tulip happens all the time where you find that same shell over and over and over woohoo oh look how pretty that guy is he's got a wee little bit of purple on them vertical stripes nice and clean oh yeah i am keeping that guy another oh he's pretty it's another calico scallop that little weight carrier shell stuff that should come off and look albino lightning whelk i know he's got a little chip but i don't care because these guys are awesome he's still got some ribs he's got little bit of knobs very cool fine we got ourselves another little guy a nice color all right this just totally confused me because it was a shiny shell so i'm looking making sure there's no critter now okay so it's empty completely or not half covered with barnacles but it's still shiny and pointy so it was recently deceased but how did all those barnacles do they attached that quickly this just didn't make any sense to me an old shell sure i'd expect to maybe see that but a brand new one intriguing so i'll make our way up to the beach that's kind of why i was hanging around in the water because there was definitely lots of stuff jumbled in the surf there but up here [Music] a little this little that a broken horse conk i like the color on those guys it's kind of walking along see what else is here it's colored calico scallop we'll just leave that for someone else and keep it moving oh look how nice the color is on this tops now these tiny but beautiful color they don't get very big so that is a fine specimen all right looks like i found myself a live olive yep he's alive you can see his little body sticking out he's there of hoping he'd i don't know what i was hoping for since these guys are kind of like burrowing snails it's not much like i it's kind of hard to videotape them in action per se so i was kind of hoping i'd put him in he'd maybe do something but he's just going to burrow he's just going to go back under the sand that's okay though because we find a couple of other ones a little bit later so we'll check them out now this is a quahog southern quahog and you can tell how old these guys are by a cross section of the shells those dark and light areas will show each year that it gets older and i just learned this and i thought that was really pretty cool and i actually happened to find the show like that so i wanted to share here is another lettered olive it's kind of got that weird yellow spot on him that's kind of unusual he's all tucked up in there that's his siphonal notch there so help a little friend out and find in some water now here's another look at him so that's his front part of his body kind of sticking out that is if you can't tell i know it's it's totally looks like an alien right look womp that is a lettered olive they are predatory snails so they eat other living critters like bivalves and well carrion isn't a critter but they eat other meat type things it is the state shell of south carolina i don't know that we've ever talked about that that looks so much like something out of from outer space i don't care though i think it's really really cool so i just kind of checked him out for a little bit that's all he really kind of did though is he kind of came out put on a little show for us and then maybe got stage fright hard to say but that's all he's gonna do so figured we'll just finish up here and see what else we can check out there's another lettered olive he's alive and well now that part on the left pointy part that is his rear end where that smoother part the siphonal notch that is the front of the shell you can see all that i know it's kind of gross but the mucus they secrete mucus and it helps them kind of glide along under the sand so this guy too he's not going to do too much more than that so we'll take a peek and keep it moving oh now this was a little weird because i don't find this all the time i'm pretty sure that that is an atlantic thorny thorny oyster atlantic thorny oyster i thought that was kind of cool that is a lettered olive it's so weird but really cool i love that and so here's another one and another one and i'm again because we were shelling at negative low tide which means it was like super super low so normally all this is under water so these guys are burrowing through the sand and they're looking to get back to the water but the tide will come in these guys will be fine that's another one coming out and this guy was a little bit flipped over but he was kind of moving a little bit think i wanted to see what would happen what's going to happen rut ro well so much for that but at least he found himself in the water and here's another one oh he's nice and dark which probably means he's alive yep so we'll just get him back into the water too and so that sandbar is disappearing quickly the tide is coming in so we would figured we'd we've done all we can do here we've shelled we've looked at some critters and olives and whatnot so it was time to just kind of give you one last look at the beach and we're gonna head on out so to review there was parking not a ton but enough i'm sure if you get there early you'll probably be okay so this was just a little bit of a walk to the beach you have a little sign so if you're out of town you don't know what you're looking for they kind of help you along with this little sign so you can identify some of the goodies that you find it is paid parking so it is eight dollars for the whole day which i thought was very reasonable so thumbs up for that and does have facilities so that's always a bonus in my book so this is our haul i would say was it was really fun with a big old sand dollar a couple of those calico scallops not too many tons of the tulips real pretty a couple top snails and button snails and a turban a bunch of cones that was pretty good score and of course i couldn't resist a couple of florida fighting conks and i'm going to pair welcome a bunch of those lightning walks including the albino moving on to the mirex including that rosemaryx that was pretty cool bunch of the shiny pointy olives which was fun and a couple nutmegs and a bunch of shark guys and some horse so overall i am gonna go big old thumbs up to south marco island thank you as always for coming along with me you guys truly are the best love you to death i will bring you a new video next sunday so i'll see you then