October 22, 2012 — For all those people who feel the need to travel to faraway places like Hawaii or Florida to find and collect a mixture of colorful shells, I got good news for you. Forget the high-priced plane ticket.
In one of the most unlikeliest places in the world, Lower New York Bay, including the downstream shores of Sandy Hook Bay and Raritan Bay, contains particularly good beaches for shell hunting. Even though not very exotic or celebrated for shelling, the miles of estuarine and ocean beaches in or near Lower New York Bay can lay claim to over 100 alluring and eye-catching seashells. This is evidence of the diversity of life that resides in local waters, not far from the busy and bustling sidewalk streets of mid-town Manhattan.
Fall through spring is an especially good time to look for shells and other curious beach finds from Breezy Point, New York to Sea Bright, New Jersey. Nor'easters and northwesterly wind stir up the bottom of the sea to cast a variety of unique and highly-valued shells onto the shore. What's more, the noisy beach sweepers or mechanized rakes are all gone. These large machines cleared the beach during the summer of not only unwanted debris, but of beautiful seashells, and then tossed them away like common beach trash.
Walk down the beach now along the tide lines, away from the boardwalks, parking lots, and built-up human surroundings, and you will find a variety of natural finds, shells in all shapes and sizes, and in delightful colors. There are Jingle shells, Quahogs, Knobbed Whelks, Moon Snails, and Blue Mussels to name just a few.
One of my favorites to find is the Bay Scallop. The little critter is not only a beloved seafood meal for many, but a popular shell to save for its exquisite fan-like shape. It's the official New York state shell and hands down one of the most eagerly sought after shells in the east coast.
It's easy to identify. The little 2.5-inch wide Bay Scallop has a small body with a "scalloped" complexion of 15 to 20 thin ribs on the outer shells. The rounded, corrugated shell makes it truly only one of its kind in the New York and New Jersey region.
Often overlooked, however, is just how colorful the Bay Scallop can be. The shells of this beloved bivalve (a mollusk that has two hinged shells) comes in quite an assortment of colors. Usually a dusky or blackish slate hue, but also in more brightly colored orange, black cherry, purple, ash-blond, or yellow-brown. Frequently, the bottom shell is white and the upper shell is dark to provide greater camouflage and protection from hungry predators, including Sea Stars and bottom feeding fish.
Read the full story in the Atlantic Highlands Herald