Seashell Soul Studio

10/11/2026

10/06/2026

09/30/2026

If you're a little ocean critter, it really sucks ass when a human rolls up and picks you up out of the water.

Take the humble sea star, for example. No gills, no lungs. It breathes through tiny bumps on its skin that pull oxygen straight out of the water. Lift it into the air for a photo and those bumps collapse. The critter suffocates.

And the grab itself does damage too. Sea stars, limpets, and mussels hang onto the rock with everything they've got, because letting go means getting eaten or washed away. Pry one off and you can tear it or kill it. Flip a rock and whatever lives underneath gets baked by the sun.

In a lot of marine protected areas, picking up an animal even for a second can get you fined.

Crouch down, get close, take the picture in the water. If you have to touch, wet your hand in seawater, make sure it's sunscreen-free, and use two fingers. Then leave it where it is.

09/28/2026

Love the bulby tips…

Do you know how a very young Horse Conch shell looks like? *Triplofusus giganteus* is one of the most iconic Florida marine snails and is well-known for its very large size. It grows to about 606 mm (about 24 inches) in length and is the world’s second largest living gastropod, after the Australian Trumpet (*Syrinx aruana*).

The photo on bottom right shows a 12 mm (about 0.5 inch) young shell. The white part on top of that young shell, known as the protoconch, was made by the snail while still living inside the egg capsule, prior to hatching! As shown in the top-right image, in well-preserved adult shells, the "young shell" remains at the shell apex. All shells in the image are from Sanibel Island, Florida.

Read more about SW Florida mollusks and their shells at https://shellmuseum.org/shells-and-science/shells-guide/

09/25/2026

Love the Sea Bean Poster…

09/25/2026

One of my favorite trees…

09/25/2026

09/23/2026