Florida East Coast Shelling. Avoiding lightning, and a shark sighting!

hello beach friends today we're going to see a different side of florida literally because we've traveled to the east coast to john macarthur state park a four dollar entrance fee is well worth the price for the huge park and beach we get to explore we are going to be walking the beach looking for treasures such as these and we're also going to talk a little bit about lightning and what i do to stay safe because rainstorms were in the area almost the entire time i was on the beach and we're also going to get to see another rather large sea creature and we're going to talk about some shark facts as well so if you're ready to start our salty and somewhat soggy adventure let's go to the beach [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay we have made it i was in the car for three hours drove across the state and i did hit a little weather on the way over and as much as you'd like to say you can predict it and i get my apps and everything there was a little weather and it looks like i might have a little bit more weather to deal with but that's okay and i'm going to tell you all about my plan now typically there is a tram that will run between 10 and 4. it's not running right now so if you're going to come here you might be able to catch that tram yeah and i'm watching so that's the weather behind me but it's still rumbling so there's a little sign this is the pickup point so you wouldn't have to walk that long boardwalk you could just hop on that tram but i decided to hoof it as i make my way up to the beach now this is a state park so they do offer other trails and things there's canoes that you can rent here's some of the trails that you might want to walk on maybe if you came here in the winter it really is beautiful but it is summer it's hot it's rainy and it should i need to i know that there is this building here that's very close to the beach so if i need to get off the beach i know that there is shelter and that's one of the reasons that i just kind of pushed through that i knew that there was somewhere that i could seek refuge look at the view hello atlantic ocean haven't seen you in a while okay we have a yellow flag which is just medium hazard fantastic i wasn't planning on swimming per stay anyway but we're gonna make our way down there and see what is on the beach so i can see they have those railroad vines those beach morning glories those purple flowers we have them too over on the west coast the tide was coming out it says the thunderstorms are going to end we shall see in the meantime let's start combing all right we'll start off with some garbage but it's cute garbage we'll take that little butterfly off the beach see what other fun things we can also take off the beach so that was kind of like a higher rack line lots of seaweed beautiful though all right my first spectral bittersweet so these are one of the shells i was looking forward to finding fantastic and since there was so much of that seaweed i was kind of hoping there would be a little something kind of hidden under there but you know a little this little that it was kicking around a little bit that but there wasn't all that much really hidden underneath anyway so just kind of moseying on seeing what we can find here is another one of those spectral bittersweet clams we don't really get them on the west coast so i know they're very common but i really really like them there's just a piece let's see if we can figure out what that is i think that is a broken slipper snail and a bittersweet another spectral bittersweet they want some of them will have like their white or their brown they just they look like candy so those are the ones that i'm kind of hunting for so lots lots and lots of the same those are all spectral bittersweets and looking just to see if i can find any with those little stripes on it and just to see oh that is not a spectral bittersweet that is a lady in waiting venus clam those i do get over here on the west coast here's another one a little bit of color on it oh another lady in waiting venus clam what about this one yeah it's a little white i'll take that so just kind of see if there's any of the particularly beautiful spectral bittersweets lots of beach to cover there we go it's got a little bit of that striping on it fantastic right so a little slow up on the beach i figured i'd go down into the water and see what all is down here completely different from the west coast so this is what i'm used to for the most part it's just calm lapping waves not like it is on the east coast you guys have some pretty serious surf it is a total different kind of shelling you really gotta be quick because once you see it it's gone you don't really get that second chance the way you do on the beaches that i normally beachcomb so this was a little bit of an exercise in frustration for me because i just couldn't really see something that i wanted to grab and ah dang it so i'm kind of keeping my eye on the weather too so the tide will be going out at some point i'll try the water again so i've driven back up onto the sand we have another lady in waiting venus clam nice hearty shell like they really got some oomph to them oh and then the striped spectral bittersweet those are the ones i'm kind of looking for beautiful doesn't it look like candy like it's a caramel and something swirl so i just think they're so pretty and i don't get them on the east coast i'm sorry i live on the west coast i don't really get them on the west coast so happy to see them a good thing because that's pretty much all i'm seeing so far lots of seaweed and then there's this other little drier rackline again looking for any anybody different more bittersweet that's okay at least there's something there it's cause it's it's just nice to see a different coast a different ocean i know there's some goodies out there i'm excited to see what it's gonna be what's gonna be the special treasures that i find today another very pretty spectral bittersweet clown uh oh well y'all did have a little bit of garbage on the beach it wasn't that much but um just like i normally do i pick up all the garbage that i find on the beach and i weigh it just to see how much of an impact i personally can make on removing garbage from the beach so we'll review that at the very end of the video oh we have ourselves a lettered olive terrific complete with yup shells jammed in there i'm not surprised at all it's missing its top i wonder if you guys ever get to see the really pointy glossy ones what else alright so we got a little bit of a smattering of stuff it's mostly crushed shells little bits of broken shells and then the spectral bittersweet so that's for the most part for us on the west coast i'm normally looking at the arks there's always the arcs but is that another bittersweet oh very pretty so these i would say they're comparable to the crossbard venus clam shells that we have on the west coast because they are all pretty much always always on the beach so pretty so that is kind of that pattern that i'm hunting for what do we got okay we have something organic here i don't know what it is i was actually not able to figure it out it does look a little bit like a calabash fruit or a laurelwood fruit but if i had to guess i think it's a sea coconut not positive some of these things are really hard to id but just kind of cool seeing a big old seed like that a blood arc okay so this is one of the arcs that i really don't find much on the west coast for whatever reason this is called a blood arc and they're kind of got that oval shape on the um on the reverse side i just think they're kind of cool now one of the other things i'd like to point out i've been here for a while there is nobody here nobody but me i have this whole place to myself that my friends that is a giant bittersweet clam those are beautiful that one it's a little worse for wear so i am going to leave it here in the hopes that i'll find something that's just a little bit better condition so i'm trying my luck again i'm back in the water seeing if by any miracle i can maybe see and snag a shell yeah i think just that quickly i gave up like okay i'm gonna wait for low tide so we'll go back up onto the beach and see what else is up here so it looks like i went up into the higher rack line and there is again there is lots and lots of shells i'm kind of looking for scotch bonnets i found quite a few of them the last time i could the last and only time i came here so this is only my second visit here to this beach kind of combing through lots and lots of those bittersweets which again works for me that one's a little bit beat up but at least there's shells here oh now that little piece i recognized just because of the reverse that shape of that shell is a turkey wing it is and i am not surprised very beach worn it looks like it's been here for a little while and some other critters got at it and etched some little holes in it so we'll just say hi to that turkey wing and leave it here oh that i'm gonna bring home so that's one of those bittersweet clams with those beautiful stripes on it and a slipper snail so we found a broken one earlier here we have an intact one not quite as colorful as some of the ones that i get over on the west coast but a slipper snail none the less okay a ponderous ark and i just think that that's so pretty the ones that i usually got are just kind of white maybe a little bit of black on it so that is a ponderous arc with really cool weird coloring love it and this i know exactly what that is i know that that is a lightning welcome because lightning welts open on the left so even though it is missing its top and it's broken in certain places because the opening the aperture is on the left i know that that is a lightning welcome so no mystery but i'm also not going to take it home i've got plenty all right dang it i see some weather so that is rain where you see those big big gray blobs that that's rain so i'm kind of hoping it's going to slide to the north and south of me we'll just have to kind of see i'm going to keep an eye on it so here's another seed it's different from that first one i picked up my best guess would have been a water hickory or a bitter nut hickory nut however those only get to about about one inch so i don't know what that is kind of interesting it is organic and not garbage so i'm gonna go ahead and hold on to that weird little nut okay cool another little smattering of shells would you look at that so that is a calico scallop a little bit rounded on the bottom but i would recognize that pattern anywhere well hello bittersweet in that pretty so it looks like it might have soaked up a bunch of that brown color i wonder if there's something in the sand some mineral that kind of turns the shells that brown color and this is a mystery bit i don't know what that is i thought it might have been broken on top but that appears to be the entire aperture on the bottom so that is a mystery shell to me i do not know what that little piece is nor do i know what that little piece is so it's unfortunate i only have the little pieces of these shelves but do like a good mystery i'm gonna hold on to them anyway so this is a lady in waiting venus clam but what i found absolutely remarkable is that drill hole in it so another critter most likely a predatory gastropod has drilled a hole into that shell and it's thick so i can't imagine how long it must have taken so when you see the shells with those holes drilled in them that was done by another critter it was hungry and it was ready to have itself a little meal or a snack so that is what creates those holes i think they're kind of cool on those little bittersweet clams so i did try a little bit of sifting in the sand figured now i'm here is there stuff kind of like buried and the sand is nice and soft and i probably could have spent quite a while actually doing this just kind of sitting and going through the sand like this but if it's buried and i just it's not a technique that i am really comfortable with so you know i just kind of sifted some things around see if there's anything there yeah there is but i really don't know how to pick a spot or where to start so i'll just kind of keep doing what i normally do kind of kick around some seaweed see if there's anything in there just kind of walk around and see what i can find we have a top of a shark eye yep just a piece of it too bad it wasn't whole but that is indeed a moon snail called a shark eye all right we got some more bits and pieces and i suspect we have more of those spectral bittersweet clams just kind of looking through any that have any of that real pretty striping on it i'll definitely be taking quite a few of these home kind of like the ones that have that gray on it too and that gets just from being buried in the sand it'll kind of absorb some of the mineral colors and or it'll it's a chemical reaction that happens and turns the shell a little on the dark side all right looks like the rain is coming and while i still have time one more time i just i'm really hoping at some point i'm gonna have some luck in the water okay i think if you were standing in the right spot you might be able to grab a little something because we do know the tide is going out i don't know how much it really helps on this coast all right managed to grab one of those rather darker spectral bittersweets probably because of the color it yeah it's tough you got to see it grab it that's just about all the time you have unfortunately at this point i knew the rain was coming so i'm gonna go to my little hidey hole spot because lightning is something you do not want to mess around with so pay attention here it is 9 32 right now so i've been here for a little while it's okay we're gonna hang out and be safe and let's do some talking about lightning so i use an app called my lightning tracker and alerts i use the free version look for that little yellow blog with the black zigzag on it if you're gonna download the app yourself now that's me that little blue mark that red mark is lightning when i clicked on that it was 0.4 miles away now that was at 9.49 so i was off the beach and safe but you really really don't want to mess around with lightning it's literally hotter than the surface of the sun now according to the national lightning safety council between the years 2006 and 2021 so that was 16 years span there were 446 united states fatalities from lightning and like florida is the u.s lightning capital so i just i do not mess around with it and i encourage you as well if you do think you're going to be out on the beach and you may encounter lightning download that app it gives you the alerts you can go in and set it up mine tells me about nine mi uh nine miles away so i give myself nine miles and it'll alert me so i just kind of hung out for a little while i'm glad i got to tell you about lightning it is nothing to mess around with seriously be safe when you're out there all right we did see submerged rocks before and there is no lifeguard so this time i'm taking i'm a little bit slower going onto the beach the first time i kind of run all right maybe not run but i am usually quite excited to get down there okay so i'm gonna try again this water this water that has been frustrating me but i'm really dying to kind of see what other goodies might be in there look at that so we do have a spectral bittersweet on the bottom and that is a thorny oyster and not pretty so they do come in that brick red they kind of come in a yellow color beautiful florini oyster and a very nice colored spectral bittersweet there we go so that is a giant bittersweet clam definitely a keeper you can kind of see it's got a little bit of its color it's a good shape clam nice and hearty anyway but yep definitely going to hold on to that as well and so i did just a kind of a quick grab just to kind of see mostly what's in there is again those bitter sweets that are pretty much all over the beach anyway just took yeah it's pretty much what's in the water too but i did snag this little olive lettered olive probably has shells jammed in the aperture probably missing its top but that's okay oh see now we're talking i like those striped bitter sweets and one that's a little bit solid and dark another blood arc very cool okay so what i say it's picking up maybe just a little bit but at this point i think i'm gonna relocate look for a better place in the water and let you all have some beach time so all right not surprising we have yet another one of those bittersweets i like oh see isn't that pretty so those really are kind of the the patterns and colors that i'm looking for the other ones are real pretty too but those striped ones like that isn't that pretty so yeah that's kind of what i'm looking for of course i would not leave a scotch bonnet if i were to come upon it but i'm gonna have to make the most with what i've got to work with so the tide at this point just about dead low again i don't know how you all do it so i at this point i i just really said i'm gonna go for it i went up on the beach i put all my equipment down and i just went in the water so i had no camera no nothing just trying to grab whatever i could find and i did okay this is one of my pockets it looks like i got another here's my favorites from that grab we have ourselves another one of those giant uh bittersweet clams that is actually a kitten paw that other weird looking thing and those orange that orange piece there is a piece of a lion's paw i think that little one is a gray pygmy venus that other piece i after examining after a while i actually think that's a piece of a lion's paw that that is the top of another lion's paw at the time i did couldn't really figure it out but i think that's what that is and then those are a couple of the more pretty i would say uh spectral bittersweet clams all right in the other pocket see that is a giant bittersweet that little brown stripy one or the zig zaggy one isn't that pretty so that's a giant bittersweet we have a lady in waiting venus clam that has that beautiful like gray color we also have an auger right underneath that and then we do have that is another giant bittersweet that's just been kind of colored funny love it that's another bittersweet also colored funny and then the olive i do have my preferences i like the really really new pointy ones and sometimes the really really worn ones i just think they're so pretty so it was a little bit more lucrative to kind of get in the water but man it is so much harder to shell over here i did have myself a really good time though i thought it was really great to come over here i'm glad i got to tell you guys about lightning and how dangerous it really can be and in just a second we're going to talk about something else that people probably consider to be dangerous here in florida but again i'm going to tell you keep an eye on that lightning if you're out there so we're going to make our way off and i just love this sound florida can just sound so florida it just sounds like nature so making my way back to my car just kind of enjoying the view and i do see some critters kind of making their way through the water at first i only saw a bunch of these fish so okay not surprising this is i believe a popular fishing spot too i spoke to somebody else who had been in the water and encountered a shark and so that is what we're looking at there that little disturbance in the water is a shark and let's talk about sharks because we talked about lightning and how dangerous lightning was and remember not too long ago so in that 16 year span there were 446 fatalities so i think when people come to florida they're probably more afraid of sharks than they are of lightning but you have that all wrong you should really be much more afraid of lightning than sharks sharks are a really really important part of the ocean's healthy ecosystem and in my opinion should really be protected now we had talked about the lightning deaths over 16 years remember it was over 440 deaths from lightning according to the florida museum so over 51 years compared to 16 guess how many deaths there's been from sharks nine so if you think about that it was 16 years over 440 deaths from lightning 51 years nine deaths from sharks you are actually statistically more likely to be killed in a selfie accident worldwide since they have been keeping track of this 330 people have been killed in selfie related accidents so we are much more a danger to ourselves than the sharks are to us and as a matter of fact we are very dangerous to sharks we kill over 100 million sharks a year now this is mostly from the shark uh finning where they just cut the fins off the sharks for shark fin soup and things like that so that is one of the things that are killing these amazing creatures that really like i said they really should be protected be safe be smart and be safe when you're out there so that was really exciting to kind of see those sharks right at the end of my trip and then as i was getting into my car i noticed i still had some shelves in my pocket so let's take a look at this lady in waiting venus clam as well as another one of those nice dark colored spectral bittersweets really loving that lady in waiting venus clam in addition to removing some shelves from the beach i also took some garbage that weighed about point seven four pounds so for today i've removed almost a pound but in total since i've been keeping track in march i've removed a little over five pounds of garbage from the beach removed a couple other things from the beach today i did get a couple of those arcs and a couple of those weird little bean nut things got some lean weeding venus clams some bits and pieces of mystery things that one little calico scallop and some of those olives and then we got some lion's paw pieces kind of cold the auger the thorny oyster some other mystery pieces a giant bittersweet of nice colored little bittersweet maybe a pygmy clam i don't know and then a bunch of those real pretty spectral bittersweet clams awesome so it wasn't exactly what i was expecting i was kind of hoping i was going to get myself a whole bunch of the scotch bonnets again but you just never know what's going to be out there and since i did so much traveling today next week we are staying super local we're going to bunch beach one of the more local beaches over here patreons thank you thank you so very much for helping me and supporting me i appreciate everybody who comments and comes along i really do appreciate it so you have yourself a great week and i'll see you again next sunday