A quick, last-minute heads up for a fun volunteering opportunity coming up this Tuesday morning, June 7th at 8:30am on Bowman’s Beach…it should only take about an hour.
This will be the third and final installment toward the very worthy cause of restoring the oyster bed reef in Clam Bayou.
The Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation‘s Marine Laboratory has already shoveled, bagged and relocated literally tons of shells to Clam Bayou in order to bring back the vibrant and eco-stabilizing environment of the oyster beds.
This is a great opportunity for us all to give back to the island and contribute when we can…
You can contact Sabrina Lartz at 395-4617 and you can also find out more information over at CaptivaSanibel.com
Our beautiful annual tradition at the Sanibel Community House located at 2173 Periwinkle Way, where the Sanibel-Captiva Shell Club puts on their amazing Shell Fair and Show every first week in March.
This year is no different and all the fun begins on Thursday, March 3rd at 9am with hours on Thursday and Friday from 9am-5pm and runs until Saturday, March 5th from 9am-4pm.
Between the Live Shell Exhibit, the art and crafts demonstrations and the juried show the judges more than 50 different categories, there is a LOT of fun to be had!
Well, you can’t go too long between posts about Seashells on Sanibel Island because they are such an icon of who we are and one of our many “claims to fame”!
Sanibel Island is, after all, the third best shelling location in the WORLD (after Sulu Islands, Phillipines and Jeffries Bay, South Africa) and there are many tourists who come to Sanibel for the sole purpose of searching for, finding, and then, photographing and writing about our colorful and creative “delights”…
One such person is “Pam” who has done such a fabulous job in documenting our shells that I just HAD to share it with you! You can find her different sites at Seashells from Sanibel Island and Seashells by Millhill. Really, really great stuff, so be sure to check out her different sites!
In the meantime, I thought that I would clip up a poster in the photos below that I have on my wall and let you see for yourself the many different types of gorgeous shells that can be found here… (Thank you Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum for the great poster and I apologize for having to clip off some of the shells in the photos to get them to fit properly…)
Enjoy and have a great upcoming (short) week,
Sandy and Rob
p.s. Even though it’s the holidays, SanCap One Source is still “on-call” for those of you trying to sneak in a good deal when everyone else is taking time off. So give us a call, we’re around…
Well, today I thought that it would be fun to talk about something that is so much a part of our daily lives here on Sanibel that we often take it for granted and don’t understand the amazing process that is happening right under our noses 4 times a day!
What I’m speaking about are the TIDES!
High tide, low tide, spring tide, neaf tide… how is your “tide knowledge”?
Do you know how our amazing oceans work or do you just say “Hey, at this time of day we can see and find more shells!”
Well, tides are fascinating, really, and I’ve found a couple of very interesting articles and even this fun and informative video above on exactly how the tides work!
As newcomers move to Sanibel and Captiva Islands, that is always a question that eventually arises (pun intended ), so I thought it would be informative to address it here in our Sanibel Blog.
Below are 2 links: the first one does a really good job of describing not only “Tides”, but also “Waves” and “Ocean Currents”… fascinating stuff!
And the second link is our local Sanibel Island Tide Data charted out for you in real time, which will show you exactly when to go perform “The Sanibel Stoop”!
Well, it appears that the dredging at Blind Pass is making a lot of “folks” happy, apart from the obvious homeowners that will soon have better Gulf access (and higher property values) when all is said and done.
Seashell collectors seem to believe that all of this “kickin’ up the dirt” on the ocean floor is causing a lot of otherwise-never-found, obscure shells to make their way to the surface and run ashore! Let’s just say that the “Sanibel Stoop” is alive and well these days!
So, if you are a collector, you will probably want to head on down to Blind Pass and have a look…
The other remarkable feature of the dredging process is one of the most vivid examples of the food chain that we may ever get to see up close.
It appears that with the dredging, millions of microscopic organisms are being “dislodged” from the sand on the ocean floor and are now present in the “unsettled” ocean water. This, in turn, has drawn an enormously large amount of smaller fish to the area, of whom are feasting gleefully on these small delicacies.
You can probably see where this is going…
With so many small fish around, naturally through the laws of the ecosystem, even larger fish yet, begin to appear and they, themselves gleefully have a feast! And yes, some of these “bigger fish” are definitely sharks! Not the “great white” kind, of course, but sharks nonetheless.
There have been many sightings in the vicinity of the dredging and some have even been caught, photographed and released.
Now, keep in mind, that Sanibel and Captiva Islands are not known for having any sort of shark problems, however it is the ocean, after all, and this dredging project is not a common occurrence, so it is probably best to be extra careful when swimming over the next few months, until this project is completely finished and things get back to normal.
If you have any questions regarding this issue, please contact the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation which specializes in preserving our island wildlife, as well as marine wildlife habitat landscaping, they’d be happy to give you more details.
So, that’s it for this week! I can’t believe that January is already over… wow, where does the time go?
Hope you have a great weekend,
Sandy and Rob
p.s. Did you notice that we added weather to the blog on the left? Do you like it? Leave a comment “yes” or “no”…
p.s.s. Have you checked out our Hot Listing on King’s Crossing listed at the top of this blog? You can see other great properties recently listed as well, over at our main website, SanCap One Source Realty – Sanibel Captiva Real Estate.
You will not find any place on the planet with better shelling than Sanibel and Captiva Islands!
Yes, I am biased, I admit it, but if we are not #1, then we are at least in the top 3, that’s for sure. Our competition is with Jeffreys Bay in Africa and the Sulu Archipelago in the Pacific.
Due to our unique east-west orientation and half-moon shape, the islands of Sanibal and Captiva are natural “nets” to catch all of the different shell species that make their way into the gulf, which is nearly 300 species and counting.
You also must check out the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum on 3075 Sanibel-Captiva Road open 10-5pm every single day. This masterpiece opened its doors to the public in 1995 and we are very proud to say that it is the only museum in the world dedicated solely to international seashell research. It’s a must-see!
So, come along and join the obsession and perfect your “Sanibel Stoop” (without getting a crick in your back!), you will then be an official member of the Sanibel family.
Here are a couple of other nice links that I found that discuss the shelling on Sanibel. One is even from our friends over at MarthaStewart.com
Hey guys!
