Snorkeling for sea shells. The Florida Keys has so many treasures (and critters)!

One thing I've learned over the years is that when a really good opportunity comes along, it's usually worth saying yes. And that's exactly what happened about 10 years ago when I visited the Florida Keys for the first time. I honestly thought I had found paradise. I was completely enchanted by the natural beauty that seemed to be everywhere you looked. Sure, we did some of the popular tourist activities, but what I remember most is the feeling of being there. There was something almost magical about it. And it was that trip that convinced me I needed to move to Florida. Now, what I didn't know at the time was that one day I'd return with a completely different appreciation for these waters and a passion for shells I hadn't yet discovered. So when I recently received an invitation to go snorkeling in the Keys in search of shells, I couldn't say no to such a fabulous opportunity. So today I'll be taking you along my snorkeling adventure with Everwater Charters and Tours. Captain Jason and Guide Molly and I headed out on a June morning, eager to see what treasures might be waiting beneath the clear waters of the Florida Keys. Now, Jason and I talked a lot about conservation and on his tours, nothing live will be coming home. He only shells ethically. And we discussed how unscrupulous shellers and captains are harming the natural balance of some shell-producing mollusks. We specifically talked about the decline in seeing live horse conchs out in the water. And folks, there is something we can do about that. I met a gentleman at an event over at the Shell Museum, and he is trying to close the commercial loophole that exists with horse conchs and have them protected like the queen conch. So I'm going to put the link to this petition in the description box below. And I'm going to give you a reminder at the very end of the video to go and sign that petition. So hopefully our grandkids will be able to find those horse conchs the way we can sometimes today. And while it would be nice to find an empty horse conch today, what I'm actually kind of hoping for are some queen conchs. Now they are very protected here in the United States, so we will not be taking any of the live ones. I'm just hoping for maybe just one or two of those empty ones. So if you're ready to see what all is out there for us today, let's snorkel for some shells. All right, so we're at our first location, this little rocky outcropping, and about to get in the water. Now, as the video goes on, I'll be telling you all the little things that have gone on in addition to the equipment that I have and should have brought and things of that nature. Now you do see a couple of fish and right away, now luckily I have done some scuba diving and so I can recognize, you see the queen there? So I have recognized and seen queens in the past. That is alive, alive and well because they are very protected. Now I am absolutely wearing gloves. I did go snorkeling a little bit the day before. I did not have my gloves. That did not make me feel comfortable at all, but here in the Keys, the water's really knocking me around. It's a little bit, it's pretty tidal. It's a little bit deeper here. So I'm kind of trying to get my bearings, be safe, check out the water and hopefully find a couple of seashells. So let's see. All right, now I'm going to try to kind of get up on that rocky outcropping and I noticed all of these urchins and I have been stung by an urchin before. So I'm trying really, really hard to give them lots of room. I do not want an encounter with one of those. All right, another queen here and again, it's the current and the water is pretty deep. All right, she's alive or he's alive. So that will be staying here. So it's, I'm not quite as graceful underwater with snorkeling as I am with diving. I'll tell you that much. Okay. Yeah. Gently try to put that down. All right. I just kind of peaked. How far am I from getting up on that island? All right. We have another live queen. All right. Not empty. What about this one? Not empty. Okay. What about this one? So as we can tell the efforts to keep the queens alive are doing its job. Plenty of live queen conchs here. So that is fantastic to see. And again, I will put a link so that we can all sign that petition so that we can protect the horse conchs. That would be really nice if I could be swimming around in a couple of years, seeing live horse conchs all over the place. That would be pretty cool. And another live. So there were a lot of them, which was cool. I mean, yes, I would like the, the shells, but just to see them. All right. I got up on that outcropping and I got a white urchin of some sort. That is cool. And another thing I'm seeing all over the place are the neurites. Now I'm going to make a video for, it's a Patreon only video, and I'm going to talk all about neurites and all that good stuff. So if you did want to get in on the, on the fun over there, you can go over to Patreon and sign up. But for now we are snorkeling and I'm desperately looking for an empty neurite. Okay. So there's some sort of arc and I finally, I have one. Yeah. I've picked up or I've checked out a lot of live ones. That shell is not really in great shape. I don't care. It's my first empty neurite. So I'm going to keep it. Yay. Now it was obvious to me that I was a lot more comfortable up on terra firma than I am down here, but alive, but just like anything, the more you do it, the better you're going to get and the more comfortable. So I'm not terribly, um, I'm more comfortable snorkeling like this. I did stop the day before and just kind of went off the side of the road. Now I'm trying to get a Caribbean vase and this was pointed out to me by the guide Molly. And I will be honest, I thought I don't need a guide. I am a sheller. I don't need someone to point out shells for me. And I was totally wrong. It is, it does not translate. Those skills on land do not translate automatically to snorkeling. Everything is covered with like a layer. And so your brain needs to relearn what shapes might look like. I've kind of got the Queens down, but other shells, not so much now I would have passed it. Oh good. I did get that. Yes. If you had seen that, I apparently did go back and score that as well. So I did get that urchin, but I will manage eventually to also get the Caribbean vase. The fish, the fish were great. This real, I have no idea what it is. This blue one, gorgeous, but I could not idea it. So that was really fun too. Just a little bit of the wildlife along with the, with the, the mollusks. Okay. There we go. There's an empty queen. Now to be fair, it is a little rough looking, but you know what? It's empty. So I don't know how it's going to clean up, but we're going to find out. Let's see. Is there another one? I think. Yeah. So I am getting a little bit of assistance from captain Jason and from guide Molly. They found these were empty. They helped me out there cause I was checking them out. And as you know, we found all live ones, but they helped me out with these empty ones. So yeah, apparently having a guide in territory that you're not familiar with is very helpful. All right. I'm checking that shell out. I don't know if that's broken or what, but I have these two won't be going home empty handed. Now this is a live milk conch. So I was not able to take that, but Jason had found that. And so we just wanted to say, hi, how beautiful. So that is also a species that we could get down here. The milk conchs are crazy. Like they're ready for war. So that was a fabulous little outcropping. So we're now going to head over to another location, which is also kind of nice when you have your own boat. And this is what would happen if you did this kind of activity. Now you can book a tour like this. There's two options. You can do a private tour, which is what I'm doing now, or there are shared shelling tours and you're just going to pop over to everwatercharters.com. The website is here. I'm going to put that in the description box below as well. And then based on the calendar, there are different dates that are available. I do want to go again. I might hop on a tour maybe in September. So yeah, never know who might be coming along, but all the information again, you can find over at everwatercharters.com. Now in the confirmation email, they will tell you all the things that you should bring. I did not bring fins. I did not bring my flippers and that was a mistake. I had them. I didn't think I would need them. And again, if you're going to do something like this, you're going to want those fins because the water pushes you around. And if you're only swimming in like shoes, you're just not going to have the strength to kind of get up to the skate that I wanted to record. I finally did. But if I had had flippers, it would have went a little bit, a little bit easier for me. So I was very happy to see another little sea critter. Okay, now here's a sea biscuit. Yeah, I can see it. Yeah, I'm struggling. It's got a hole in it. I think I'm good. Yeah, I'm probably going to be picky with that as well. Oh, another queen. No, it's not a queen. It's a hermit crab. Now, if we had just watched the Egmont Key, we found a giant red hermit crab that I mentioned. They are known for carrying these queen conchs around. Let's see. Are you gonna come out enough? Probably. Yeah, I'm struggling. I'm struggling to kind of film it. And all right. All right. So we do have a giant, yep, a giant red hermit crab and one of those juvenile queen conchs. So he managed to find, he or she managed to find an empty shell. So they are out there. All right, buddy. Yeah, I'm trying not, I don't want to, I'm trying, yeah. There you go. I can place you down. Oh, the fish were pretty. All right, there's another queen. It looks like it might be missing. I can't quite tell. And it's kind of rough. I wonder if I'm going to keep it or not. Yeah, it's the breaks too. Like, I guess it's one thing if it's intact and it doesn't have breaks in it. But if it's looking kind of rough and it has breaks, there is a good chance I'm going to leave that for a hermit crab. Yeah, trying to figure it out. Well, I've been doing all sorts of experimenting with bleach. I'll tell you what. So most of us are used to putting the live shells back. That's just how we roll. But there is one critter, the thrush cowrie, this right there. Now this is a non-native species that is spreading in Florida waters. Researchers are actually asking people who find live ones to not return it to the water and to then go ahead and report it to scientists. So they have been showing up for a while. So it's a free for all on the thrush cowries. And I'm okay with that. They are invasive. They are not good for native cowries and other native animals that need to be here. So helping exterminate or kind of remove those type of creatures from the environment is always going to be a good thing. So we are now headed to yet another location. And that's why it's great to go not just with anybody, with people that know shells and know where to find shells. So that's another reason I would recommend, if you're going to try to do this kind of thing, go with someone who knows what they're doing. All right, these are both a little rough. Yeah, it's got a kind of a bigger break in it. And that other one was empty too. Yeah, I'm still a shell snob. Yeah, even with the queens. I actually got a couple of queens diving. So I do have some really nice ones. So yeah, I'm a little bit snobby. There you go, hermit crabs. Somebody can, somebody can, or maybe some other snorkel and snorkeler needs a starter shell. Nope, not empty. Beautiful, just beautiful. All right, trying to, yeah, I'm trying, trying to be as gentle as I can. But that's what happens when you don't bring your fins. Oh, I got a moon snail. So yep, the guide handed me a moon snail. And that's the other fun thing when you're coming with more than one person, and there's three people hunting, and only one gets to reap the rewards, which we will look at at the very end. Okay, queen, yep. And oh, it's empty. Oh, is it? Huh, is it empty? I mean, it's empty. There's no mollusk in there. But what is another weird stuff? I can't, I can't tell. And that is why my friends, you wear gloves, because there's all sorts of weird stuff out there. So I think I'm leaving that. Yeah. Okay. Oh, there's another one. Did I check that one yet? Let's see. Take me a minute. Okay. Well, that one's not really broken. All right, maybe I take that. I'm not sure. Or did I let that go too? Yeah. All right. Oh, a sea biscuit. Yep. I'm fighting with the current. I'm fighting with the water to get a good look at this sea biscuit. So you figure out one camera in one hand, I got the sea biscuit in the other hand. We're kind of snorkeling. There's a lot going on. Oh, that's exciting. Yeah, there's some algae and seaweed and stuff on there. But that's okay. Yeah, that's cool. Hold on to that sea biscuit. That's my first sea biscuit. And so now we're headed to yet another location. And this was pretty fun. I got towed behind the boat. We'll get there in a minute. Now here I think is the nice looking Caribbean vase. Yeah. So that one's empty. Awesome. Caribbean vase. That is fabulous. I want to say most of the ones that I have found diving were alive. And I see a queen here too. Let's see. Oh, yeah, that's looking pretty empty. Pretty uninhabited. All sorts of sand and whatnot. All right. So, so far you drop in, get a queen and a vase. Not bad. Oh, a hawk wing. I didn't see it at first. Oh, a hawk wing. Oh, that's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah, I myself don't have any luck with those on the beach. I've never found one on the actual sand. So that's my second one. I actually found my first one yesterday when I was snorkeling. And I shared that with the Patreon. So, oh, but still, that's awesome. Oh, and look, and when you have guides, they, they, they glide over and hand you treasures as well. So this little kind of hairy juvenile queen conch, but poor Jason, he doesn't know the level of snobbery that that I participate in. So, oh, there's an empty one. Great. There we go. Oh, that's great. Awesome. I can't wait to see how they clean up. All right. I do think the captain is alerting me to something good. Yep. It was good and it was alive. So that's it. Alive Caribbean vase. And I just love that also that, um, the Everwater Charters, they're an eco-friendly, like a naturalist kind of company so that they in general want to protect the environment so that we can enjoy it for many, many years to come. So I do see another very hairy queen here. Ooh, nice lip. And you know what? I think that's empty too. Now she's got all sorts of algae and, oh, but it's empty. All right. It's, it's not pristine. You know what? Yeah. I'm definitely keeping that. That's a great lip. We'll just have to bring that home, get it in bleach and see how that cleans up. All right. I do see it on the very bottom. It's another vase, I think. And it's alive. Yep. All right. So not for me. You stay here. Oh, sorry. I do try to be gentle, but yeah. Well, at least the seaweed looks pillowy and soft, but truly I wish I had brought my fins. But I think that comes with overconfidence and I will repeat land skills don't always translate to the water skills. So if you are not an experienced diver or snorkeler, and you want to have an experience like this, head on over to Everwater charters and see what tours days and times are available. Captain Jason knows where to look and we'll take you to where he feels you'll have the best chance to bring home some of those treasures. Now, normally I provide a segment of beach time where I like to give my viewers a chance to be alone with their thoughts for a moment. And while I didn't really find that opportunity when I was out on the boat, I did pull over at this overpass and I wanted to enjoy the view, but also give you all some beach time. Oh, there was so many firsts for me. So those white urchins and new the nary, I was not leaving without one, the turkey wing, the hawk wing, and the cowrie. Yeah, sorry. It's a thrush cowrie. That's kind of a bummer actually, but the Caribbean vases and that sea biscuit. So they are soaking in bleach right now. Let's move on to the Queens. Now the Queens, yeah, they're very, very green, but they were very, very empty. And you know what? They're so big. I feel like I can do something with them. So those two are also soaking in bleach right now. And I probably will reveal, or at least, you know, play around and see what I'm going to do with those over on Patreon. So Patreons have been getting a little bit of extra content, um, just as a, as a thank you. I truly, I probably go on and on every week because I'm just gobsmacked that people are choosing to support me. So I'm just, I feel so lucky, so grateful. I cannot thank you enough. And everybody else, please know, I'm also very grateful for all your comments, for watching. It all adds up and just keeps this channel going. So I couldn't do this without any of you. So thank you so very much. And now I would like to remind you to go on over. I will put the link in the description box below, but if you go over to change.org and right in the search bar, you can just put in Florida Horse Conk, and you will see that this little petition come up. We can do better. We can totally help. Please go over there and sign that petition. Thank you so much. And I will see you next Sunday.