Marine & Freshwater Environmental Education
These days – Absolutely! In past decades it was not uncommon to substitute succulent scallops with shark or the wings of a sting ray. The scallop industry has been thriving since 1970’s and this has not been the norm. How can you tell? Real scallops will break apart very easily when separated, also, the meat will be lengthwise.
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Well, it is important to mention that not all mussels are found on pilings. Mussels attach themselves to any type of hard substrate in the intertidal regions, including pilings. On pilings the top most mussels indicate the high tide line.
To go off on a random tangent, here is a yummy mussel recipe: http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Cooking-Mussels/Detail.aspx
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Good rule of thumb would be that whelks are found in temperate water and conchs are found in more tropical waters. Also, conchs have eyeballs, while whelks have eyespots. If you’re lucky enough to catch them while feasting, whelks are carnivores and conchs are herbivores. Also, their body colors are different. Conchs tend to be green or gray while whelks are tan or whitish (but can be other colors).
What I think you are referring to is the trail of a moon snail, or sometimes called a sand snail. This univalve animal has a cinnamon bun swirled shell. The shell is extremely thick to protect itself from the ocean and other animals that may try to eat it.
If you try to pick it up – the animal will resist because of its suction like muscled foot planted in the sand. The snail has that muscled foot which makes it glide quickly through the sand. If you do pick it up and feel resistance – it is ok, the animal will “close its door” – or operculum – and hold in water and nutrients. And, of course, you will put it back right where you found it? Now, it you see some colored legs poking out – that’s a hermit crab. They may pinch – so put it back – quickly. Hermit crabs make their homes out of shells that are no longer homes to other animals…
Lastly, this is type of snail is the one that has the radula which drills into clam shells.
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The strand of half dollar sized pods is an egg case. Actually each pod has about twenty tiny animals in each pod.
The tiny animal that will grow from this egg case is the knobbed whelk. This is basically a northeast version of a conch (pronounced conk). If you hold the tiny discs up to the sunlight you can see the tiny versions of the whelk developing.
The whelk is a mollusk (like clams and oysters) but only has one shell. This shell grows with the whelk as it gets older – as opposed to the hermit crab which moves out as it gets bigger.
Also, if you hold the whelk shell up to your ear you can hear the ocean. Lastly, do not hold up a whelk shell to your ear if it has a tough protective “door” covering its opening. That’s the mantle and means that an animal inhabits the shell. Please place it right back where you found it.
Image (c) Jo O’Keefe.
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Image via Wikipedia
Oysters are another bivalve animal. In the case of all bivalves, the part of the animal that lines the shell is known as the nacre and the part of the animal that make up the outer shell is known as the mantle. A pearl is created rather by accident when something foreign gets stuck inside the mantle, thus the nacre builds up to protect the animal. This build up is known as the pearl.
Oysters, mussels, and clams all make pearls. However, they are most often seen in oysters. My theory is that the oyster shells are typically not as uniform in shape as clams and mussels and tend to grow according to their surroundings, making it easier for foreign junk to accumulate.
The shell to the right with a hole through it was hinged to another shell of equal size with an animal living inside (in this case, a clam). Animals with two shells hinged together are known as bivalves. Often, in restaurants oysters and clams are shucked and served “on-the-half-shell” (Yum! I prefer them plain, but sometimes mix it up with ones with plenty of horseradish!).
Animals in the ocean do not have the luxury of someone shucking their prey, but rather use an adaptation called a radula. A radula is the sharp, drill-like tongue of some mollusks (e.g., whelk or conch). Radulas are found on every class of mollusk except for bivalves. A whelk or a conch would use their radula to drill into the clam and then slurp out its meal … Leaving behind a perfectly symmetrical hole. Moon snails and oyster drills are also well-known for using this technique to drill into clams for a feast.
Image (c) imageshack.us
These tiny colorful clams are commonly known as coquina clams.
Did you see them wriggle under the sand? They use a muscled foot to dig a burrow and hide from their enemies: crabs, sea stars, and snails. They can feed themselves with the muscle coming out of the other end, called a siphon. The siphon basically just sucks in the “vitamins” of the sea for the clam to grow on.
Clams grow very fast in the summer and fairly slow in the winter. You can tell the age of a clam by counting the darker rings. The softer rings are the slow growth of winter. Think how your hair grows longer and faster in the summer.
Did you know that colorful coquina clams are the sign of a healthy beach? Check the video posted here!
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