Best Times to Go Shelling – Seashell Collecting

I’ve been collecting seashells for over 35+ years. When it comes to collecting them I only collect the ones that I personally find. I don’t buy them at all. Over the years I’ve learned how to clean them, preserve them and identify them. I display a lot of them in our home and other’s I keep in labeled storage. Yes, I love my seashells!

Decades ago I learned about the best times to go shelling and thought I would share that information on the blog. I know a lot of you will be heading on vacation and other’s do live near the coast. I personally recommend that you ONLY collect shells that are no longer occupied or if the animal is now deceased. If the animal is still living, please put it back!

Here’s what you need to know.

1. Low Tide – The best time on the Jersey coast to find seashells (especially large whelk shells) is during low tide. You’ll want to look for tide pools and wade through them to find the larger shells. You can also look around the jetty’s, rocks, and piers to see if any got stuck while the tide was rolling out.

2. Water Line – Take off your shoes and walk through the water as it comes up onshore. You want to walk through wet sand and to a depth up to about mid-calf. I will often find smaller shells along the water line while walking the beach.

3. After a Storm – We get big storms that roll up the coastline and after it passes you can go out onto the beach and find some really cool seashells, sea glass, pieces of driftwood, etc.  Storms are notorious for pushing larger shells up onto the shore.

Looking for information on how to clean Whelk, Conch and Seashells? Need help on identifying seashells? You can check out my previous posts on that. Happy shelling!

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