I have received 2 letters in response to Bas Payne’s article in Mollusc World 10 – How much harm does collecting dead shells from beaches do?
From Janet Sawyer:
Dealing with “Persons from Porlock”
In issue No.10 of Mollusc World you invited a response to Mr. Payne’s article about the question of collecting shell material from a beach or whether, as the passing “Person from Porlock” suggested, it should be left there “for everyone else to enjoy”. I must admit to being impressed by the scientific study which Mr. Payne pursued as a result of being faced with this conundrum.
As a person confined by nature to beach collecting I feel that I should be qualified to make some definitive reply, but most of my shelling trips usually involve only a single visit to any particular location. Of the places where I have shelled over a period of days, I can think of two which provide a contrast. Firstly, Fort Aguada beach in Goa where I stayed for a week and shelled in the tiny bay once or twice a day; here the quantity of shells available did diminish as the days passed, although the same effect could have been caused equally well by changes in tidal patterns or food supply. The second is Sanibel Island, Florida, where hundreds of people hunt shells every day without apparently diminishing the quantities available for others to collect, or simply to “enjoy”.
Frankly, I do not think I would have been as patient as Mr. Payne, but would have swiftly informed the “Person from Porlock” that few people understand or appreciate Mollusca, that the forces of nature or the local hotel’s beach cleaners soon destroy whatever is left behind, and that I for one would most certainly cease to “enjoy” life itself if obliged to cease collecting.
From Adrian Brokenshire:
Early in 2006 a friend was off to India to work for a couple of months and was asked that whilst there could she collect a few shells off beaches with locality details for me. This she was quite willing to do if her time permitted.
Well, she did not have much spare time but did manage to get to a beach at Coconut bay, Kovallam, south India. Having a good search of strand and water’s edge, she could find no shells! A local child could see what she was doing and directed her to some mounds of shells near some fishing boats. The child explained that the shells belonged to her father who collected up all the shells on the beach in the early mornings (I assume for various shell trades in some form). On hearing this tale, I was initially a little horrified that the shells were being collected in this manner and that there were no shells evident along the beach (also disappointed of course that I would get no shells from that locality). On giving it a little more thought, there were several points that came to mind: 1) here was someone trying to make the best of local resources and supplement his living; 2) that to make it worth this person’s time and effort there must be enough shells on the beach to go out each morning and collect them, being replenished by tide and wave action; and 3) at least dead shells were being collected and he was not supplementing his living by live collecting.
In general, collecting dead shells on beaches does no harm, after all, how many readers have been on beaches where the strand and water’s edge are regularly walked by locals and visitors and shells are broken by their actions? I have seen on many occasions, strandlines and drift-lines at the water’s edge totally obliterated by horse riders. But, have been confident in the fact that given the right tides, wave and weather action, more shells will soon appear.