Treasures on the Beach
by Joan Collar
No visit to Kiawah or day spent living on Kiawah is
complete without a stroll on the beach. We are so fortunate to have such
an expansive beach and relatively few people. This lends itself to great shell
picking. The early morning hours and an outgoing tide are the best times to find shells,
especially after a storm or during a full or new moon. What is amazing to me is the way
in which the shells appear. One day the beach will be full of cockle shells, the next day
starfish. Surely there are mysterious happenings out there in the ocean.
South Carolina’s waters are teeming with more than 700 species of shells. Most
common on our beach are sand dollars, starfish, cockles, oyster, clam, slipper shells, olive
shells, moon shells, augers, jackknife clams, angel wings, whelks, arks, jingles, coquina,
sea urchins and pen shells.
One of the most sought after and treasured shells is the sand dollar. The most
common one found on Kiawah is the keyhole urchin. It can grow up to six inches in
diameter. The distinguishing features of the keyhole sand dollar are the five keyholeshaped slots on the skeleton. When the sand dollar dies, the spines fall off and the
skeleton is bleached white. Shake it and you can often hear the rattle of the dried teeth
inside. This also is often referred to as the Holy Ghost Shell. It has a famous Legend of
the Sand Dollar story written about it. When you find a sand dollar on the beach, be sure
it is not still alive. If it is brownish and has fuzzy little spines on it, throw it back into the
sea.
The lettered olive shell is the official South Carolina state shell. This shell is
cylindrical in shape, tan or cream colored with various tiny patterns and wrinkles on it.
It is highly polished because the mollusk (the animal that lives within it) is constantly
pulling its mantle over the exposed surface which keeps it nice and shiny.
Photographs courtesy of Pamela Cohen
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