A version of this story was originally published in 2023.
Before you hit the Jersey Shore this summer, it may be wise to think twice if you happen upon a massive whelk shell on the beach that your kid wants to take home.
Or even a live sand dollar, which some states ban you from taking away.
Snagging shells and filling your beach bucket with them can come with environmental consequences.
“There are definitely guidelines,” Samantha Kreisler, communications specialist at nonprofit New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium, told NJ Advance Media while venturing out to one of Sandy Hook’s National Park Service beaches.
“Like when you do find something cool on the beach, open it, make sure nobody’s home, make sure there’s no hermit crab or anything living in it,” she added, “and maybe if you’re taking, don’t take a lot.”
Sifting through rocky debris and shell pieces while exploring one of Sandy Hook’s National Park Service beaches, Diana Burich, director of education at New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium noted how helpful shells can be for educational purposes. But she emphasized that teachers there collect shells for classroom lessons on topics like “ocean acidification” and what shells can say about the health of an ecosystem.
Mindy Voss, the Education Specialist for the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium, holds a spiral snail shell at Fort Hancock Beach in Sandy Hook looking for seashells on Wednesday June 14, 2023.John J. LaRosa | For NJ Advance
The Jersey Shore is home to an array of diverse and striking sea shells.
That includes the knobbed whelk, the official state shell of New Jersey, jingle shells also called “mermaid’s toenails” because of their look and surf clams which earned their name because they reside where the waves break.
Some shells can turn into homes or in the case of sea urchins, decorative hats.
Mindy Voss, education specialist at the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium, uses shells for demonstrations on ocean health and experiments on acidification.
Besides understanding how manmade global warming is having an impact on the ocean, Voss says merely the amount of shells at a beach could prove useful to track.
“The more variety, that’s called biodiversity, tends to show there is a healthier population,” Voss said, “and if you stop finding them, it could be an indication of maybe something’s going on here.”
Shells — such as recycled whelk, clam and oyster shells — have been shown to provide utility for living shorelines too.
Moreover, although some shells are used to make homemade jewelry, another form of recycling, experts did not recommend purchasing shells from kiosks and stores at the Jersey Shore as those could trace back to places where shell collecting en masse is not heavily regulated.
It’s illegal, Christine Thompson, a marine science professor from Stockton University said, to take live sand dollars in some states outside of New Jersey. Collection laws exist in Florida, California, Oregon, and Maine, according to AquaBiology.com.
“You want to be more conscious nowadays of what you’re removing from the habitat,” said Thompson.
But asked whether there should be a full stop on beachgoers gathering shells for their own personal pleasure, Thompson said it’s not a simple yes or no.
“The ocean has a lot of problems going on in it and removing shells isn’t the number one problem. At the same time, it might not be helping,” said Thompson. “Especially bigger shells, like a whelk shell or a conch shell which might be empty, could be used by a hermit crab or (another species).”
If the urge strikes to collect something before packing up, nonprofits recommend safely removing trash and other debris from the beach.
“I always tell my kids gather up as much trash as they can find before we leave,” Thompson said. “Instead of taking a whole bucket full of seashells. A better way to support ocean conservation is to take home a bucket full of trash or dump it in a trash can on the boardwalk.”
But if it must be shells, the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium provides these “ethical” guidelines to keep in mind:
- Ensure the shell is fully “empty” and that there is no living creature still inside. While it may be tempting to take home a mud snail or hermit crab, marine organisms do best in their natural environments and not your tank at home
- Conduct a “sniff” test. A quick whiff can tell you — if foul smell is detected — that decaying flesh could be left in the shell
- It’s probably best to leave behind spiral shells because they can turn into comfy homes for other animals
- “If you really want to have a sea shell, choose only 1 or 2 specimens — the fewer the better, leaving more behind for ecosystem use,” organizers said
The most common shells to find on New Jersey Beaches.Image courtesy of New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium
Voss said she was not aware that collecting shells in any parts of New Jersey was being shown to have an “adverse effect.”
Still, she noted the topic has not been extensively monitored or studied.
A 2014 study, which focused on a section of Spain’s north-eastern Mediterranean shore, found surveys of sea shell abundance between 1978 to 1981 indicated removing shells from beaches could hurt ecosystems and endanger organisms that rely on them to survive.
If you find yourself at home with shells or don’t notice your kids brought some along, Thompson suggests soaking them in a bucket with a little bleach to kill off any potentially harmful bacteria or smelly algae. Recycle them, she and other officials said, or bring them back to the shore on the next beach day.
