DianaT
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Sand dollar
We have thousands of sand dollars on our beach here at home, but we had never seen one so large.
Sand Dollar from Campo Rene
Diane
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David K
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Go to Shell Island and go crazy!
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Skipjack Joe
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| Quote: | Originally posted by jdtrotter
We have thousands of sand dollars on our beach here at home, but we had never seen one so large.
Diane |
Have you seen the ones in Florida? They're way larger than that. They call them sea biscuits down there and they look more like a biscuit than a
dollar. But they have that same five point design on the shell.
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Diver
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Sand dollars and sea biscuits are not the same critter.
Although a sea biscuit does look kinda like an inflated sand dollar.
You will find both in many locations.
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SDRonni
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Where is Shell Island?
Anybody been to Sanibel Island on the Gulf Coast of Florida? Incredible!
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Skipjack Joe
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Well, at least I was close. I thought it was related to a racehorse but at least I had enough sense not to suggest that.
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Diver
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Here's a site with pictures of more than I knew existed...
http://www.shellhorizons.com/products.asp?category=15
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bajajudy
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We found 100's on the beach at La Pinta in San Quintin.
Nice link, Diver, thanks
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DianaT
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Skipjack Joe
Well, at least I was close. I thought it was related to a racehorse but at least I had enough sense not to suggest that. |
Took me a minute. 
Here in Imperial Beach, we have lots and lots of sand dollars like the ones in San Quintin---we just had not seen this variety before----would you
believe that a few of them survived the trip home. We were surprised.
Now I guess we need to go find more----missing Baja
Diane
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Skipjack Joe
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Speaking of survival
During my early trips to baja I was really into getting a great variety of shells and in order to get the best quality I would pick the live snail and
have the flesh removed.
That's easier said than done. Someone told us to just leave the dead snail on an ant hill and presto all the flesh would be consumed in a matter of
days. Well, it took much longer than our vacations (I would spend the entire 2 weeks in Pt Escondido) and that was not an option.
Then we were told to keep the animal in a plastic bag and the flesh would simply rot off. That worked but the task of opening the bag after arrival
and washing out the decomposing liquid was not something I would wish on anyone.
Today's baja. I don't think we're even allowed to keep shells. I haven't seen a pink murex in over 10 years. There were pink murexes in Bahia San
Rafael and black murexes in mag bay.
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dean miller
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The sand dollars are a member of the ECHINODERM (Pro -E-kai der derm) family. The members of this family are six in number, they are:
1) sand dollars
2) star fish,
3) brittle stars,
4) sea urchins,
5) sea cucumbers,
6) and sea lilies
They are very easy to idenify as being members of the echinoderm family by the body which is composed of a radial plane of five (5) segments. (ie five
legs)--note the sand dollar demonstrated in post #1
The echinoderms are world wide in distribution and are found from innertidal zone to unknown depths.
The sand dollar as demonstrated is large for this time frame, but not exceptionally large in years past
The sea biscuit is a member of the echinoderm family --It is a sand dollar
Yes I have been to Sanibel island--first visit in the early 1940s when it was vigin territory.
Many years ago when SCUBA diving was in its pioneering stage and it was thought there was no end to the boniful ocean I wrote a series of articles
for several Scuba diving magazines on collecting and preserving marine life
including star fish and sea shells. There are ways to preserve star fish and other members of their family as there are ways to remove live sea
creatures from their shells with out an ant hill or suffication in plastic bag.
But we gringos have done enought to destroy Baja and I am not going to contribute to the destruction of Baja's delicate marine life by sharing the
content of my articles, therefore you have two choices refrain from harvesting sea creatures or research my and a number of other articles on
preserving and cleaning of you trophy sand dollar and sea shell.
SDM
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David K
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| Quote: | Originally posted by SDRonni
Where is Shell Island?
Anybody been to Sanibel Island on the Gulf Coast of Florida? Incredible! |
Sorry Ronni, I didn't see this until now...
On my web site are space, sky, and land photos of the barrier island between Percebu and Bahia Santa Maria, I call 'Shell Island'... Here is a space
photo of the coast south of San Felipe between Punta Estrella and El Vergel. Shell Island is in the middle. Access is at Km. 26 or from the salt flat,
dune buggy road that connects Percebu with Santa Maria:
From the air, flying south above the north tip:
[Edited on 3-14-2007 by David K]
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DianaT
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To Dean Miller
| Code: | But we gringos have done enought to destroy Baja and I am not going to contribute to the destruction of Baja's delicate marine life by sharing the content of my articles, therefore you have two choices refrain from harvesting sea creatures or research my and a number of other articles on preserving and cleaning of you trophy sand dollar and sea shell. |
Please, the sand dollar we found and kept was 300 yards from shore and well dried out---nothing alive was taken--that is not something we would do.
The other two were sitting outside our cabin at Campo Rene.
This one is not a matter of a difference of historical perspective, we agree with you on this one, but think your reply might be a little colored by a
difference of historical opinion.
Diane
[Edited on 3-14-2007 by jdtrotter]
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