Sanibel Island Shelling – The World’s Best Shelling

Shell-lovers from all over the world make pilgrimages to tiny Sanibel Island’s Gulf Coast, considered the best shelling spot in North America according to Travel & Leisure Magazine. Sanibel’s beaches, protected by a broad underwater shelf perfect for gently receiving deliveries from shell-laden currents, are carpeted with tiny, perfect pastel coquinas and false angel wings. Sanibel Island Shelling has become so popular with beachcombers that some hotels offer rooms equipped with special sinks and worktables for cleaning and packing the day’s yield. Weather Channel Facebook friends’ also voted Sanibel Island as their best shelling beach.

With the abundance of seashells found on Sanibel Island and Captiva Island, collecting them has become a favorite pastime. In fact, so many people go shelling when visiting the Islands; the bent-at-the-waist stance one takes when bending over to retrieve a seashell has been dubbed the “Sanibel Stoop.”

Sanibel Island Shelling and Captiva Island Shelling have earned their reputation as the “Shell Islands” honestly. The islands are littered with shells, like some magnificent work of shell art created over thousands of years. When islanders dig gardens in their backyards, they find conchs, whelks, scallops and clam shells often perfectly intact.

The best shelling is found on the beaches of Sanibel Island & Captiva. The islands rank tops in the world for shelling because of geography. Sanibel Island is shaped in a curve along the coastline among a string of other more orderly, straight-and-narrow islands. The east-west torque of Sanibel’s south end acts like a shovel scooping up all the seashells that the Gulf imports from The Caribbean and other southern seas. USAToday has ranked shelling on Sanibel Island as the 7th of Florida’s Best Attractions overall.

The incredible abundance and variety of shells have made Sanibel Island and Captiva shell-obsessed. People come from all over the world, drawn by the song of the seashell. They parade along the sands doubled over in a stance that’s been dubbed the Sanibel Stoop. Every March, they gather to compare and appreciate shell collections and shell art at the annual Sanibel Shell Fair & Show. Throughout the year, shell shops sell seashells by the seashore (and by the thousands). Shells are the dominant motif in island decor and boutique gifts. You’ll find everything from finely crafted “shell-igrams” to lucite toilet seats with seashells lacquered in. (No home should be without one!)

All of the Gulf-side shelling beaches from the Lighthouse to North Captiva are excellent places to shell. With hundreds of thousands of shells, the beaches are nearly inexhaustible sources of every type of shell; and are constantly being fed from the Gulf & Caribbean.

For a list of public beaches, check out our Sanibel Island Beaches page.

The best time to go shelling is at low tide when the seashells are more exposed, especially at low spring tides (at full and new moons) and after Gulf storms have driven the shells up the Gulf onto our shelling beaches.

If you want to go shelling, bring a bucket or net bag and scoop. Wear shoes and shuffle to expose partially hidden mollusks and to scare away fish. With the abundance of shells on Sanibel Island and Captiva Island you are sure to have a successful day of shelling, not matter what your level of skill.

Shells of many types and sizes are found on our shelling beaches at Sanibel Island and Captiva Island. As a general rule the smaller seashells are found on the Lighthouse end of the island chain and the larger shells nearer Captiva and North Captiva.

Among the species you may expect to find while shelling:

• Conch
• Junonia
• Lightning Whelk
• Cockle
• Scallops
• Murex
• Tulip
• Olive
• Coquina

Seashells come in two major varieties.

1. The gastropod has a single shell and includes such species as conchs and whelks.
2. Bivalves, such as clams, cockles and scallops, have one shell with two hinged parts called ‘valves’.

The empty seashells you find layered on the beach once were home to soft-tissued animals called mollusks. Mollusks grow their shells at the aperture (gastropods) or at the margins (bivalves) As the animals grow, their shells grow with them. Special glands create color pigments just before new layers of shell harden.

Shells and their inhabitants play an important role in Sanibel and Captiva islands ecology. They help keep our sand neatly in place and restock it with more as they’re crushed by waves and other forces. They provide food for birds and fish. The scavenging and filtering performed by certain mollusks help cleanse Gulf waters.