Truth is that a great many of the world's beaches have been
collected by the people on Conch-L.  You name a country,
or an area, and somebody reading this has probably been
there and collected shells.  But, as some of the others noted,
the "best" beach in a country, or even on a single island, will
change pretty often.  The best beach I ever collected was
the south beach on Aunu'u Island, just off the east tip of
Tutuila, American Samoa.  A few years later, it wasn't nearly
as good.  What I hadn't considered at the time was that there
had been a couple of fairly strong hurricanes before I moved
to Samoa, and had killed a lot of molluscs--consequently,
there were tons (no exaggeration) of freshly dead, and rare,
shells on the beach, many in excellent condition.  You could
easily collect 200 or 250 species of shells without ever getting
wet and without getting out the magnifying glass.  Some had
chipped or broken lips, of course, but the variety and quantity
was amazing to a Texas boy who was used to seeing five
species of clams and a couple species of gastropods on a
beach stroll.

If you wanted to collect by snorkeling, Tonga has the most
variety and quantity of any place I've been, but the real shellers
say Vanuatu and some of the other islands in the western Pacific
are even better.  The Philippines probably have the greatest
variety of any island group, and some on the list could give
you specifics on that.

"Aunu'u after a hurricane" gets my vote for best beach...: )



Don

----- Original Message -----
From: "Audacitie Anderson" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, April 21, 2006 7:37 PM
Subject: What are the world's top shelling beaches?


> What a loaded question eh! I've spent hours & hours online trying to find
> a
> list of generally recognized ten top shelling beaches in the world.
>
> I've been to southwest Florida, Sanibel in particular, which I've read is
> listed as #3 in the world, or at least that is what their Chamber of
> Commerce claims. I'm not looking for any particular shells, probably more
> quanitity or diversity. Just curious as to what, in your opinion, is an
> excellent shelling beach. Or, if you won a lottery to go on a special
> shelling expedition, what would be your hot spots?
>
> Audacitie
>
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