The expense of renourishing a beach is high enough without importing sand
from another location. Usually they pick a place offshore that's as close as
possible to the beach, so you can count on the shells as coming from the
general location. However, even if they're buried, they often turn white, so
don't think you have a bunch of albinos, unless the dredging is very recent.
(There were a lot of pure white Cancellarias coming through the dredge pipe
in Naples some years ago.)

Renourishment is a pet peeve of mine - it kills not  only the mollusks that
come through the pipe (and messes up the offshore environment) but also
smothers the species that live in and near the surf. Many times people ask
me why they haven't found any coquinas (donax) lately - and I ask when the
beach was renourished. Then the same authorities that authorize renourishing
the beach want to ban live shell collecting... which kills far fewer
animals.
Peggy

> Dear Listers,
> I have been "listening" for awhile now but have not yet entered any
> discussions.  However, yesterday I noticed the posting regarding the unknown
> Conus at John Lloyd State Park in Dania, Florida and decided to share my
> thoughts and observations, since I had just spent the morning collecting
> beached shells at this same location.  I also collected some young Conus
> which I have not been able to get the time to identify, but I will be looking
> at them soon and will take some digital photos in the next day or so.
> However, I am very interested in the situation at this location, because I am
> unfamiliar with the recent  history of the area.  I did spend a lot of time
> trying to figure out the source of the shells on this beach and had finally
> concluded that a major source is the apparently dredged sand that has been
> put there to renourish the beach, because there is definitely erosion
> occurring there now - there is a pronounced scarp that ranges in height from
> about 3 feet to over 6 feet, and the high tide on November 17 & 18 was
> eroding the base. The heavy rains on November 17 washed and exposed a number
> of molluscs at the edge of this scarp, and subsequently I found a great
> number of extremely fresh looking olives, cones, scallops, etc that had been
> preserved under a few feet of sand.  My impression was that this sand may
> have come from a location farther than just offshore in the Fort Lauderdale
> area - probably from further south.  My questions regarding this are: does
> anyone know when this beach was renourished, and where the sand has come
> from?  Are these cities getting any of it from the Bahamas? Is there any
> official source of this type of information?
> I do a lot of beach collecting, and although I maintain a skeptical mind with
> regard to dead shells, I still feel the information gathered from observing
> the occurrence of particular species at specific localities at different
> times of year,  and under different conditions can be quite informative.  But
> beach renourishment obviously causes a problem with this sort of data.
> Trish Hartmann
> [log in to unmask]
> Tampa, Florida
>

                     Visit my website at http://www.shelltrips.com
                                  Peggy Williams
                                   Shell Elegant
                                    PO Box 575
                                Tallevast FL 34270
                                   (941) 355-2291
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