Tag Archive for 'beachcombing'

What the Shell #7: Lady-in-waiting Venus

Published
by
Jason
on August 4, 2008
in What The Shell?
. 3 Comments
Small brown clam closed to show outer ridges and stripes [240x180, 24K]
Small brown clam opened to show purple markings on inside [240x180, 24K]
Lady-in-waiting venus clam (Chione intapurpurea), © Jason Robertshaw

What the Shell Is That? is my series on beachcombing and tidal life. Living on the west coast of Florida, it is mostly about shells, but can also be about other flotsam, fauna and even flora.

Lady-in-waiting venus clam (Chione intapurpurea)

Date: 27 April, 2008
Location: Turtle Beach, Sarasota, Florida, USA; at the top of the beach scarp.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Order: Veneroida
Family: Veneridae

Lady-in-waiting venus clam (Chione intapurpurea)

Report:
It was a rough and windy day with light showers. It was also our first trip to the the infamous Midnight Pass area of Siesta Key. The pass was closed in the 1980s during construction of the bayside Intercoastal Waterway and its reopening has been a hot-button issue in the area ever since. If you click on this link, you can see a Google map image of one of the houses nearly falling into the ocean after storm erosion (circa 2001?). The area appears to have been “renourished” since then.

The venerids are remarkably abundant, perhaps the most abundant shell on the beaches here. The only reason this specimen stood out was because it was the only shell I found that day that had both valves together.


References

Additional Links

Beach Chair Scientists and Beyond

Published
by
Jason
on August 3, 2008
in All Wild Right Outside
. 0 Comments

Beach Chair Scientist
I learned about a new Web site at last month’s NMEA conference called the Beach Chair Scientist. It is run by Ann McElhatton and features a companion blog for “anyone with an enthusiasm for learning about the science behind life in the ocean or along the seashore.” So far there are entries on horseshoe crabs, seaweed and ocean exfoliants.

WATERlog
Another blog I learned about recently is run by The National Aquarium in Baltimore and is called WATERlog. The blog is updated weekly and features posts on their conservation efforts and peeks behind-the-scenes. A recent post featured news of the birth of an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin at the Aquarium. The blog’s sidebar shows photos from the National Aquarium’s Flickr Pool, which gives a personable angle on how the guests view the institution. In contrast, the blog’s About page seems terribly formal, as if it was ripped from an annual report. It does not give a clear idea who the primary author, or authors, are for the site. Compare that to The Monterey Bay Aquarium blog called Sea Notes. They list the authors for each of their posts and I wish the National Aquarium would do this too.

As a side note, the National Aquarium blog is hosted at Wordpress and the Monterey Bay Aquarium blog is on Typepad. For anyone interested in comparing the two hosting services, you can see how these two aquariums take advantage of the different blogging hosts. It is also interesting to note that neither one chose to host their blogs on their own servers.

EcoSRQ
Finally, there is also a new Web site for environmentalists in my area of Florida, called Eco Sarasota. If I recall correctly, this site is an outgrowth of the Sarasota environmental Meet-up group. But just like the National Aquarium site, there is a dearth of contact and background information on who is behind it. Hope they add more info soon.