Kristin Hissong, Author at Coastal Review

Beachcomber’s View: Sand Dollar Treasures

Kristin Hissong — Thu, 08 Aug 2019 04:00:47 +0000

Reprinted from Island Free Press

Growing up in North Carolina, my family often spent summer vacations on one of our state’s beautiful sandy beaches, our favorite being the tiny island of Sunset Beach. On most of the small-town Carolina beaches, time stops. Things that mattered before your vacation don’t anymore, and you instantly find yourself at peace surrounded by the majestic ocean.

Sand dollars are a type of flattened sea urchin that are also closely related to starfish and sea biscuits. Photo: Kristin Hissong

On most of our trips, my mom and I diligently woke up every morning before sunrise, (sometimes before the birds and definitely before anyone else in our family), to go look for shells. I wasn’t a professional beachcomber back then, so I only looked for shells. My mom and I quickly learned where the best shells would wash up, and we would spend the majority of our vacation scavenging the beaches for our seashell treasures. Year after year, we would go for only a few weeks out of the year, where we usually found scallops, eastern cockles and coquinas.

However, on one magical morning, we hit the jackpot.

As we walked along the coastline at dawn, toward the north end of the island we saw a boat pull up and the man operating it started throwing stuff to the shore. On the north end of Sunset Beach is a small channel that lets you into the calm waters of the bay. It’s similar to Oregon Inlet and the sound side, except that the currents at Sunset Beach are nowhere near the power experienced on the Outer Banks.

At first, my mom and I could not figure out what he was tossing ashore. It looked like globs of seaweed or cow patties, to be honest, flying in the air, and it wasn’t until we got right up to him that we were able to figure out what he was discarding.

His net was full of sand dollars, and he was throwing them onto the beach. We did not know what to think. I was 7 and my mom could tell I was starting to get a little upset because they were alive and the man was tossing them so hard that many were breaking in half. He had hundreds of them and my mom and I threw most of them back into the ocean in an attempt to save them, not knowing if their fate had been sealed because they had been removed from their environment.

We worked through the excitement, trying to save the ones we could and keeping a few as treasures, but we were experiencing something new about our beloved ocean and we didn’t full understand what had happened. We gathered up many of the broken ones and the ones that were already dead and went back to our beach house with half smiles on our faces. Our family was certainly impressed by our haul, but this was maybe the second time in my life I had ever found a sand dollar, and I just couldn’t shake how we acquired them.

At the time, I decided to do some research about sand dollars because I wanted to know more about them. I wanted to know where they lived and if there was anything I could have done differently that day to save more of them, or if they could have been saved at all.

Unlike today, I had to wait until we got back home so that I could go to our public library and try and find books about seashells. The problem I ran into was that there was little information, (and still is, actually), about living shells, because they are nocturnal, and it is challenging to study seashells in their natural environment in the dark, as you can imagine.

But what I have been able to learn throughout the years still blows my mind away.

The sand dollar is a flattened sea urchin that buries into the sand. They are closely related to starfish and sea biscuits, which are puffed-up urchins. All the urchins filter ocean water in their own unique way. The sand dollar uses the five, star-shaped openings to flush seawater through its body. This process also helps propel them across the sea floor, although they don’t typically do much moving around due to their extremely dense population.

Sand dollars live just below the surface of the oceans’ floor, and in massive amounts. Hundreds of sand dollars can live in the tiniest space, with the larger ones on the bottom and the younger, smaller ones on top. This is why you typically find hundreds of sand dollars washed up at one time if you are lucky enough to stumble across this type of beach scene.

When a storm comes and stirs up the area where the sand dollars live, hundreds can be destroyed. Often, after a storm, you can even find the powdery remains of a large quantities of dried-out sand dollars along the tide line.

When sand dollars are alive, they are covered with tiny hairs which help them eat; usually algae, but they also eat larvae and other microorganisms. These tiny hairs help sweep food into their mouths which contain five teeth. The sand dollars chew very slowly, and digests food equally as slow. The diet of the sand dollar is how it get its coloring, similar to mollusks, which also get unique coloring from their diets. It is only after the sand dollar dies and the fine hairs fall off the skeleton that it gets bleached by the sun, turning it white.

Once the sand dollar has turned white, it becomes incredibly fragile. In fact, I can remember finding a tiny one that I was holding in my palm, when a wind gust blew it right out of my hand. It hit the wet, sandy shore, and shattered in 20 pieces. Although most of the sand dollar was gone, there were five little pieces that survived, that looked like tiny seagulls. I found out later that there is a religious legend about these tiny pieces, and the sand dollar in general.

When a sand dollar breaks, the five objects that fall are believed by some Christians to be the five Angels of Peace who sang to the shepherds on the day of Jesus’ birth. Scientifically, they are actually just their teeth, which is why you can sometimes find them among the powdery remains of their skeleton in the tide lines. (I like thinking they’re angels.)

Although they have a mouth with teeth, they are not considered a predator, and they have very few enemies in the vast ocean. Sheepshead fish and some larger starfish will prey upon them, but they usually meet their death naturally by storms. Thunderstorms, nor’easters and hurricanes can stir up the areas where the sand dollars are living, resulting in hundreds of them dying.

They get tangled up in the seaweeds that are ripped off the floor, and the sun cooks them as they ride the weeds on the surface of the water. The freshest ones become bird food, and the others get bleached out by the sunshine and turn white. If the water stays calm enough for the white ones to make it ashore, then an unsuspecting beachcomber may find one of the most fragile treasures in the ocean.

As an adult, I still get a thrill out of finding large, white sand dollars, but now that I have been beachcombing for many years here on the Outer Banks, I have learned something even more fascinating about one of my most favorite treasures.

A fossilized sand dollar. Photo: Kristin Hissong

The Outer Banks is known for its shoaling, where sand is being tossed around by underwater currents which creates shallow bars that can be there one day, and gone the next. These currents can be so powerful when storms are approaching, that they can bring up sand that is thousands of years old. On rare occasions, this old sand has equally old seashells, which is how you can find fossilized sand dollars.

These fossilized sand dollars are as hard as rocks, encrusted with extremely hard sand. They could have become fossils from an underwater magma leak from an opening in a fault line, or just died of natural causes before being buried under the depths of the sea for thousands of years. In many of the ones I have found, I can see a part of their five-star pores, which is like their signature marking to most collectors. To the untrained eye, and sometimes even to experts, they can appear to be camouflaged, as they are flat and usually sand color.

Whether it’s freshly deceased or an ancient fossilized sand dollar you are looking for, if you walk a little slower and think a little less about all that stuff that matters, you may have a chance of finding one of these spectacular gifts from the ever generous ocean.

This story is provided courtesy of the Island Free Press, a digital newspaper covering Hatteras and Ocracoke islands. Coastal Review Online is partnering with the Free Press to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest along our coast.

Beachcomber’s View: Science of Sea Glass

Kristin Hissong — Wed, 12 Jun 2019 04:00:10 +0000

Sea glass can be found in a range of colors along Outer Banks beaches. Photo: Kristin Hissong

Reprinted from Island Free Press

The Outer Banks is home to an array of natural beauty, from the long stretches of wild beaches, to the calming waters of the sound, to all the many varieties of marine life.

People come from all over the world, year after year, to enjoy all the treasures that these miles of sand have to offer, and one of these treasures that is growing in popularity and diminishing in availability is sea glass.

Most sea glass comes from broken bottles, with just a small percentage from decorative items like vases or tableware. Photo: Kristin Hissong

Sea glass is a piece of glass that has become smooth and frosty from being out at sea for an extended period of time, usually more than 25 years. Sea glass is glass that has been chemically altered – naturally – by the intense ph levels of the body of water it has been submerged in over many years.

If the ph levels are high, like in the Atlantic Ocean or Great Lakes, then the water will yield collectible pieces. If the ph levels are low, like in most lakes and sounds, then that body of water will yield slick glass, which are sharp shard-like pieces that are not favorable for sea glass collectors.

About 90% of sea glass pieces come from broken bottles and the other 10% come from decorative items like vases or tableware. On the Outer Banks, the sea glass supply comes mostly from commercial glass containers like Clorox or Listerine, and on rare occasions, one can find a red piece from a boat lens or a teal piece from a telephone insulator.

In the early development of America, ships would carry goods up and down the coast, but the Outer Banks is not know for its smooth sailing, and consequently many ships wrecked causing their goods to be dumped into the Atlantic Ocean.

Years later, and unknown to anyone, some of the glass objects turned into beautiful, collectible sea glass.

Storm surges from hurricanes and other storms like nor’esters pound the shores of the Outer Banks annually. Sometimes these surges wash away homes and the contents of these houses ends up in the ocean. Items made out glass from these homes also have the potential to become sea glass. One of my favorite pieces that I donated to the Sea glass Museum was an intact insulator from a GE range from the early 1950s.

The colors of sea glass that can be found depend on the history of the beaches. For example, chunky aqua pieces are frequently found on beaches in Japan because historically they are known for their glass fishing buoys which are famed for their thickness and beautiful aqua blue coloring.

The Outer Banks is known for having lots of brown and clear sea glass, because of all of the aforementioned commercial vessels, but it is known for having lots of black glass as well.

Black glass, or “pirate glass,” is glass that looks black, but when held up to the light, its true color is revealed. For the Outer Banks, the pirate glass is usually dark olive green, often with an air bubble stuck inside which indicates that it was made by hand and thus very old.

The true pirate glass pieces that are found here could date back to the 1700s, and are usually thicker that all other pieces of sea glass. These are often over looked by beginners because they sometimes look like a black rock.

Beachcomber Kristin Hissong searches for sea glass, which she photographs.

On rare occasions, black glass can also be a deep amethyst or indigo blue, which typically stems from electrical insulators. Light bulbs have a tiny glass insulator wrapped in metal at the base of the glass. These insulators can be a deep purple or blue color, and can sometimes be found washed ashore with the bulb intact. Telephone poles used to have glass insulators on them, and they came in a wide variety of colors all which can be found on the Outer Banks. These type of insulators are exciting for collectors because they are usually very thick and often a rare color.

People always ask me where the secret spot is to find sea glass, but truthfully, no one really knows.

The beachcombers I know that collect sea glass go often and they walk slow, picking up everything they come across. Many times I have bent down to pick up a piece of trash only to discover a beautiful piece of sea glass hiding under a shell or a pile of seaweed. Walking slow and thinking about the colors of sea glass I want to find are some of the things I do when I am out sea glass hunting.

I also walk the areas again because sea glass likes to hide between shells and rocks, and even the most experienced collector can walk over pieces that are tucked away.

Have patience, stay happy, and soon enough the sea glass will find you.

Beachcomber’s View: Whelks Versus Conchs

Kristin Hissong — Mon, 22 Apr 2019 04:00:27 +0000

There are many differences between conchs and whelks, shown here, which are a favorite of beachcombers to collect. Photo: Kristin Hissong

Reprinted from Island Free Press

Beachcombing on the Outer Banks, especially during the winter and early spring, can prove to be a challenging adventure due to the harsh weather conditions that frequent the area. Our sandbar is known for its many shipwrecks due to high seas, strong currents and blustery nor’easters.

In the winter months, the Labrador Current dips down and pushes its arctic waters close to Hatteras Island, colliding with the Gulf Stream. This collision can stir up the ocean floor and cause huge amounts of debris to wash ashore, from shell piles to shipwrecks.

Many shells favor cold water over tropical waters, and one kind in particular that many beachcombers enjoy collecting is the whelk.

Whelk shells are often mistakenly called conch shells, but there are many differences in the two shell types. For starters, aside from the whelks preferring cold water and conchs preferring tropical waters, whelks are carnivores – and at times, cannibals – whereas conchs are herbivores.

Known as the “bullies of the sea,” whelks attack each other, as well as any other smaller animal they find. Conchs are not aggressive, for they eat algae or kelp and so they don’t have to kill for survival.

The whelk has a “foot” on its opening which is how the shell can move around the floor, dragging its large whirling shell behind itself. This foot is also used to help protect the shell from attacks, as well as aid it in its own attacks. The conch does not have this foot, and instead, it leaps around the floor by contracting its muscle.

Whelk shells are often confused for conchs. Photo: Kristin Hissong

Whelks are also hermaphrodites and sexually reproduce on their own. They lay a string of spiraling eggs cases that they implant into the sand. On Hatteras Island, beachcombers can often find these cream-colored spirals washed ashore after storms.

Each case can contain 25-plus tiny shells, and each strand can have over 40 cases – that’s more than 1,000 baby shells! These tiny shells burst out of the cases and swim on their own through the sea, in hopes of landing among a seashell sandbar where they can grow and develop. Comparatively, conchs are either male or female, and reproduce by having intercourse.

There are more than 50 kinds of whelks around the world, and there are six varieties of whelks that can be found along the coast of Hatteras and Ocracoke islands – knobbed, Kiener, lightning, channeled, pear and fig.

The knobbed whelk is Georgia’s official state shell, established in 1987, and in the same year, Texas made the lightning whelk their state shell.The Kiener whelk was established in 1995 as New Jersey’s state shell, and all three of these shells can frequently be found on the islands.

The channeled whelk is rare but not uncommon, whereas the pear and fig whelks are very rare in our area, as these are much more fragile than the other three kinds of whelks on the Outer Banks.

The lightning whelk is my personal favorite out of the six types mentioned above because it is one of the only shells known in the world that opens to the left. Almost every shell known, when you hold it in your hand with the point – or the apex – pointing upwards, the opening is on the right side, except for the lightning whelk.

Knobbed whelks resemble lightning whelks, but knobbed whelks open to the right. The Kiener whelk, in comparison to these two, has very defined points and often does not have the same coloring as the knobbed and lightning whelks.

Whelks have been around for over 60 million years and humans have been collecting and using them throughout the ages. On Hatteras Island, the legend goes that pirates would put the extra-large whelk shells on their fists, using the lightning one on their left, and have boxing matches using the whelks as gloves. There are other stories of sailors using the egg cases as a bath loofah, and evidence of Native Americans using them as gardening tools.

Nowadays, beachcombers collect them for their aesthetic value and not for their function. Some collect them for crafting, like making air plant pots. Since these shells get so large, our state record is over 12 inches, their size combined with the huge amount of eggs each one can lay means they are highly populated in the Atlantic Ocean.

They range in size from 0.5 inches to over 12 inches, and because of their toughness, broken pieces of these whelks can be found on almost every beach on the Outer Banks. Many of these broken whelk parts are gathered by shelling enthusiasts and artists. Although shells are no longer used in our culture like they once were, they are still valued among collectors and beachcombers.

The next time you are out beachcombing on the Outer Banks or on the North Atlantic coastline and you come across a huge spiral shell, you have most likely have found a whelk. Now that you know the difference between a whelk and a conch, fewer people will confuse the two species, so you’re “whelkome.”