r/shells

34.3 mm in height with its orginal Operculum, One of my favourite Turban shell

L

cat tax included

Elk, Mendocino County, California.

I'm a remote worker and a young single woman - this is relevant because the town I moved to in January - Elk, a town of less than 200 in Mendocino County - doesn't have any other single female tenants.

I checked.

I checked because when I moved here, things were immediately weird. It's a literal oceanfront apartment for less than $3000/month, so I figured there would be some issues, but figured it'd be more than worth it to live in literal paradise: undeveloped oceanfront property on the California coast. I thought I hit the jackpot signing this lease, and mentally prepared for bad weather, no utilities, gossipy neighbors, and the other usual rural bullshit.

What I did not expect was sexual assault and poaching.

The landlord and owner of the property is involved in red abalone poaching - there's a place called Laurel Gulch that's called locally "Poacher's Gulch" that sits on the property. More abalone - pinto, reds - than I have ever seen in my life in the tidepools, inaccessible to anyone except people who risk trespassing or who have explicit permission of the landlord.

The landlord, a local white guy who has groups of random Asian "friends" who come up from the Bay Area to dive on this property at night, without lights. Poached abalone sells for up to $200/lb, and most are more than 3 lbs each.

At first, I had no idea about the poaching, and just thought random people were trespassing onto the property to dive and sleep here at night, and told the landlord about this within the first few weeks I moved in. He confirmed it was probably locals without a place to sleep, told me he knew one of them, and said they were mostly harmless, to not worry about it, but to call him if I saw them on the property.

The very first time I did call him about who I now know were poachers on the property at 2am, he came over, told me he'd "wait in my room while I slept to make sure I was safe", then I woke up to his hands inside my bed. We had not done anything even remotely related to that before - it came out of complete left field, and he has a partner of 9 years.

Since this happened, he's made my life fucking miserable. I didn't report the assault and took weeks to start reporting and defending myself: during that time, itt took about five seconds of digging into the property to figure out the poaching angle. Finding abalone tools and other diving equipment on the property solidified it.

I reported him to the property manager for the inappropriate sexual contact, and he responded by trying to evict my cat (unsuccessful, because he's a service animal, but that gives you a picture of who we're dealing with here) - then when he couldn't evict my cat, he has now started directly trying to make my life worse. Yesterday he had some man I don't know bang on my door during the middle of my presentation to hand me back the rent he charged me 8 days ago, unprompted, and with zero explanation.

I put in a tip to Cal Fish and Wildlife, and an officer came out and spoke to me imemdiately (while I was polishing the shells above, actually) - it's not the first time I've spoken to a law enforcement officer who was lying about who he knew, and I immediately picked up on the fact that this officer - one of only 3 or 4 who patrol the entire County, which is NUTS - is friends with the owner and in tacit approval of the poaching. Like I said - this is a town of 200, the landlord is a city commissioner, and his son is in law enforcement. You cannot make a more untouchable person, and that's why he is so brazen about sexual assault and poaching.

In response to the CFW visit, the landlord left his abalone tool out on the beach for everyone to see for over two weeks starting the day after the visit. They are brazen, because they think they're untouchable.

If anyone wants to actually help me with this poaching problem, contact me.

also - this photo is like 1/5 of the shells I've collected on this beach. because I (and the poachers) are literally the only people with access to the tidepools, and it is absolutely incredible. more life than I've ever seen in one spot.

Hey y'all! I used to collect these all the time when I was little and in my childhood home in NC. Either found at the beach or the lake I had lived beside, can't actually remember but pretty sure the Myrtle Beach would make more sense. Was always stunned at how the purple would pop out in the sand or in shallow water, and some have a sheen that follows the fine "lines" that make up the shell which you can see in specific lighting, not in these pics. What causes that if anyone knows? Besides wanting to know what these are called, what type of shells they are and such, Id like to know how they turn out this way. Lmk if I need to post to a different sub.

Side note- happy to finally find an answer for the people on the beach who always ask “what are you going to do with all those shells?”

i know a lot of people liked the look of the bryozoans, but if i’m being honest they make my skin crawl a little (trypophobia) so i wanted to share the shell after its cleaning!

i’m very happy with how it turned out. :)

how i cleaned: i boiled it and then let it dry. then i soaked it in water and used tweezers to scrape off the bryozoans. they actually came off easier when they were damp rather than dry. then i brushed gently with a soft toothbrush and soap, and painted on a bit of mineral oil to finish.

We found this today at OBX NC, can anyone tell us what exactly it is?

Can someone please help ID first page

Found in southeast Florida, Boynton Beach Inlet using a sifter because the tide is so rough where the shells hide.

Its really a huge shell I don't know how to ensure that its cleaned from inside like really deep inside of it .

At first I try to take it outside with a Tweezer but it didn't work so i put it in my plants for 5 days so the Insects and worms can eat it but today when I was cleaning it omg it was really disgusting the things that was getting out of it but I tried to clean it really well from inside but I couldn't reach the top of the shell to clean so what I do to ensure that it's clean and there is no snail remains inside it ?

i found these shells and it's roughly around 37 kg and it fucking damn heavy