Forty years ago, Richards Heuer published his book Exploring for Sea Shells on Martha's Vineyard, an island off Massachusetts. It's a useful book and complete, in the sense that it includes micros while many shell books from that time didn't. Heuers provided information on where to find each species on the island. He admits the limitation that the book is geared for the summer collector and my sources tell me he was a summer collector.

I had the chance to retrace some of the steps provided in the book during a five-day stay over Memorial Day weekend on the Vineyard. I encountered more Crepidula fornicata than I'd ever seen, although I have a vague memory from boyhood summers in eastern Long Island that they can be prolific. In some spots, they were the only mollusk species save a few valves of Anomia simplex. See http://www.jaxshells.org/crep1.htm

Many of the places Heuer mentioned as good shelling spots were productive. There were some changes. For instance, a colony of Nucella lapillus can now be found at Menemsha as well as the places named in the book. And he wrote that Anachis avara "is considerably less common than" Anachis translirata. I found them in nearly equal numbers in drift lines among the seaweed.

Frequency was the most obvious change to me in my brief stay on the Vineyard. Heuer wrote that Seila adamsi is "rare" and Mangelia (Pyrgocythara) plicosa is "Found very rarely south of the Chappaquiddick ferry landing or at the tip of the point in Eel Pond." I found more than a few of each near the Chappy ferry landing during an hour of search. Another species I found at that spot was an Epitonium rupicola in good condition...Heuer deemed it "very rare." There was also a paired Tagelus divisus..."very rare" according to the book. Either there has been a population growth of several species, I'm very lucky or Heuer was generous with his use of "rare" and "very rare".

I know I'm not the only one to use Heuer's book for shelling on the island. I met a year-round resident, Louis Winkelman (!), who collects shells. Perhaps 30 years ago, he set about trying to collect all the shells in the Heuer book. My girlfriend's mother had been the proofreader/editor and she encouraged Louis to use his sailboat to find the elusive Anomia aculeata under a buoy. As he told it, her navigating skills weren't always the best and Louis still has the dent in his hull from running into the buoy but he didn't find Anomia that day.

I had a few minutes to view Louis' framed display of a complete (or nearly complete) set of Vineyard shells to match the Heuer book. One anomaly I noticed was his Yoldia. It wasn't a Yoldia...it was Tellidora cristata. I'd like to find out where he got it--not likely from Martha's Vineyard, Abbott (1974) says the range is North Carolina to south Florida and Texas. (It's not anything common anywhere, is it?)

Have others made use of the book and/or shelled on the Vineyard?

David Kirsh
Durham, NC



"When you're chewing on life's gristle, DON'T grumble. Give a whistle!" --from Life of Brian

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