Two kinds of shell
Sea snails vs. bivalves
Almost everything on the beach is one or the other — a quick way to sort your finds.
🐌 Sea snails (univalves)
One shell, coiled into a spiral, that the animal carries around like a mobile home. Many are hunters — including the moon snail that drills tidy holes in other shells.
🦪 Bivalves
Two matching halves (“valves”) hinged together — clams, scallops, cockles. They’re filter-feeders that mostly stay put; on the beach you usually find a single loose half.
🐌 — sea snails
🦪 — bivalves
📍 All found on Oak Island
Univalves · the spiral shells
Sea snails
Tap a photo to see it full-size.
The two-shelled clams
Bivalves
Scallops, a dosinia and a cockle — all washed up from the sounds and shoals.
Added on the trip
Live finds
Anything the family adds from the beach shows up here for everyone.
No live finds yet — be the first to add one!
Beachcomber’s notes
Shelling tips
Shelling like a local: hit the beach at low tide, and especially the morning after a storm or a strong north wind. Caswell Beach on the east tip is the prime, low-key hunting ground (it’s great for fossil shark teeth, too). Golden rule — take only empty shells, and put back anything still living (a hermit crab using a snail shell counts!).
Still hoping to find: the Scotch Bonnet (Phalium granulatum) — North Carolina’s official state shell and the first one any U.S. state ever adopted. It’s a creamy, ridged, helmet-shaped beauty with squared orange-brown checks. We haven’t turned one up yet… maybe this trip.