My husband and I had very good luck when we visited the Outer Banks/Ocracoke area several years ago.  We stayed at a local B&B owned by a local school teacher who had written a book on Ocracokers that was fascinating.  We paid a local boat owner to run us out to Portsmouth Island, which you can see from Ocracoke, and we spent the day picking up Scotch Bonnets.  There were so many that we could hardly believe our eyes and one was more beautiful than the next.  That was pretty much the only specie on the island however on that particular day.  In some parts of the world, if you find a Scotch Bonnet, it's a big event and we had only a couple in our collection, so when we saw Scotch Bonnets littering the beach by the hundreds we were pretty excited.  By the end of the day, we were Scotch Bonnetted out, but we had a great time.  On our way home to Maryland, we stopped at a couple deserted beaches on the Outer Banks just to spot check, and we were lucky enough to find, I hope I have this right, an egg shell case of a Nautilus, just like the one on the cover of Anne Lindbergh's book, Gift from the Sea.  It didn't seem to make sense to us that a Nautilus shell case would be there because we've only seen Nautilus's in the South Pacific, but we're not that all-knowledgeable.  Nonetheless, it was there and is now proudly displayed in our living room.  We also did some shelling on the Core Banks and brought home lots of different kinds of whelks.  Once again, there was a large amount of them on the beach.  We walked many miles and our backs were pretty sore afterwards from hauling all the shells back!!

>>> [log in to unmask] 11/07/01 09:53PM >>>
Andrew Vik
Tampa, FL
[log in to unmask]

Carolyn:

I have found some good shells in the Morehead City area, though mostly on the
"inside" (intracoastal waterway, Bogue Sound).  On the flats just North of the
bridge to Atlantic Beach, Morehead City side of the Sound, I found the following
species (in August of 1990):

GASTROPODA
Anachis avera
Busycon carica
Busycon contrarium
Busycotypus canaliculatus
Fasciolaria hunteria
Olivella mutica

BIVALVIA
Anadara brasiliana
Chione cancellata
Dinocardium robustum robustum
Divaricella quadrisulcata
Pandora trilineata
Parvilucina multilineata
Solemya velum
Tagelus plebius
Tellina aequistriata
Tellina iris
Tellina versicolor

SCAPHOPODA
Graptacme eboreum
(the largest ones I have ever seen, 1.5 inches)

I did not have a shell strainer with me at the time (before I met Phil Poland,
who taught me how to make this great tool), so you could no doubt find more of
the smaller species using one. I found all of these by snorkeling (out of the
question in Winter) and by walking the flats at low tide. Also, there were large
clusters of sea whips around the bridge pilings, though I found no Simnia.
Perhaps they will be there in Winter.

Yours, Andrew

[log in to unmask] wrote:

> Dear Conchlers,
>
> I just noted a request for info on shelling the Outer Banks.  We too are
> headed up that way in a couple of weeks, although we'll actually be staying
> in Atlantic Beach, south of Morehead City.
>
> I would certainly appreciate hearing from any of you who have any experience
> shelling in that area or the southern portion of the Outer Banks.
>
> Thanks so much!
> Carolyn Petrikin
> Clearwater, FL
> [log in to unmask]