This summer, let the St. Pete Shell Club and ShellTok teach you about ethical shelling on Florida beaches

In 1975, John Jacobs brought a live shell back to his dorm at Andersen Air Force in Guam. He learned quickly that a mollusk doesn’t give up its home that easily. As a young, single airman, he taught himself to snorkel as a hobby while stationed on the small island in the Pacific Ocean. But he knew little about the shelled creatures he saw in the waters off the U.S. territory. Then he learned about the Guam Shell Club, conveniently located on the base.

“And I never looked back. The rest is history,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs is the president of the St. Petersburg Shell Club , a group passionate about mollusks, seashell collecting and marine conservation since 1936. His wife, Cheryl, is the club’s Tidelines newsletter editor.

Jacobs is originally from Boston, and he and Cheryl have lived in Hawaii, Texas and Florida through his 24 years in the U.S. Air Force. They’ve been in the Sunshine State for 31 years and currently reside in Seffner.

No matter where they traveled or lived, a love of shells was a constant in the Jacobs’ life.
[content-1] “I’m more scientifically into it than some people are; they’re not just pretty shells taking up dust on my shelf,” Jacobs said. “I like to learn about the animals themselves, their habitats, all of that. And not just shells but mollusks in general, which includes octopus, squid, cuttlefish…things like that.”

After learning and collecting for nearly 50 years, Jacobs’ home and mind are treasure troves of seashell knowledge. A self-proclaimed data nerd, his collection of tens of thousands of shells is meticulously categorized, organized and logged in Excel.

He considers himself a citizen scientist and a general collector who enjoys walking the beaches in search of common and rare shells he can learn more about. With decades of shelling experience, Jacobs also trades specimens and helps other collectors identify and categorize their finds.

This and putting on shell shows—like the Club’s Annual Shell Show, which happened last February—is one way Jacobs promotes ethical shelling, collecting and conservation. These shell shows connect casual hobbyists with actual scientists, who can benefit greatly from the data collected by citizen shellers.

“That’s the beauty of the organization and shell clubs in general,” Jacobs said. “You have people who just walk the beaches to find shells and you have the more advanced collectors who are more scientifically interested, like I am.”

The Conchologists of America, where Jacobs is second vice president, includes citizen scientists, hobbyists and malacologists from around the world—many of whom are based in Florida.

“Every shell club is different. And you think, ‘oh, they don’t have one in Ohio.’ They have one in Ohio,” Cheryl said. “It just takes a number of people interested in shelling. They’ll find a way; they find each other.”

Affection for shells, community and education are at the heart of organizations like the Shell Club. Shellers like the Jacobses stress ethical shelling and seeking more information about the beautiful shells brought home from a day at the beach.

“I stress education when it comes to mollusks,” Jacobs said. “Don’t over collect. Try to be responsible. Learn about what you’re doing. Don’t just pick up shells, take them home and clean them out and put them on a shelf.”

Besides joining a club or attending a shell show, one of the best ways to connect with other shelling enthusiasts is through social media. On TikTok, #ShellTok has thousands of tropical aesthetic-filled videos of people hunting for seashells and sharing their finds. Most are shot in Florida, the surrounding Caribbean waters and in Hawaii.

Gulf Coast resident JoJo is one such local sheller who’s gained a sizeable following on TikTok and Instagram . She’s originally from New York and has lived in California and Hawaii, moving to the Tampa Bay area in 2022 after four years in Fort Lauderdale.

“I absolutely love Florida,” she said. “It’s where I feel most at home.”

JoJo, who declined to use her last name for privacy reasons, credits her parents for her love of shells. When she moved to Florida, her mom sent a guidebook on seashells and has since read through it “so many times.”

“I just love identifying the shells,” she said. “I also had no idea so many people didn’t know that shells had names or that an animal created that shell. I think that also makes me realize…there is a lot of need for education on this stuff. And I’m excited to share everything I can.”

JoJo’s videos are peaceful and comforting to watch, but they also venture beyond aesthetics to include the names of every shell she picks up.

“Come sunrise shelling with me in St. Petersburg, Florida,” JoJo says in a March video at Pass-a-Grille Beach . In the video, she shows off a live lightning whelk before putting the creature back in the water. She then finds a sand dollar and a couple of live banded tulips nestled in the low-tide sand.

JoJo also shows off the shell of a shark eye sea snail, a twisty worm snail, a deep purply-brown bay scallop and a tiny drill shell and bubble shell.

Some of her most popular videos on TikTok—with millions of views each—were from shelling trips to Pass-a-Grille and other local beaches. In them, she finds live starfish and sand dollars, a snake-shaped lightning whelk egg case, live Florida fighting conchs, shiny lettered olive shells and a brittle star.

JoJo got into shelling to make art and began posting her finds on social media in January.

“This whole TikTok thing came out of nowhere; I was just going to use it as a way to promote my art,” she said. “But then the shelling videos did really well, and I’ve been having so much fun doing them.”

Like Jacobs, JoJo emphasizes education and ethical shelling. She advises to be careful of live shells and barnacles and to put creatures back where you found them.

“Also, just pick up trash as you’re going along looking for seashells,” she said. “That’s one of the rules of shelling…to make it better than you found it.”

Educating yourself about shells and the creatures that inhabit them is one of JoJo’s biggest tips for new shellers.

“It helps to know what you’re looking for…it’s easier to go there with that in mind because you can overlook so many cool shells,” she said.
Florida boasts over 800 miles of sandy beaches and various coastline habitats. Beachcombers often flock to barrier islands like Sanibel, Shell Key and Honeymoon Island State Park for fighting conchs, lightning whelks, banded tulips and moon snails.

Sarasota resident Kristen Williams, who goes by @theseashellmermaid on Instagram and TikTok , shares her finds from southwest Florida beaches and her favorite spot—Ten Thousand Islands off the coast of Collier County.

Her shelling journey began on a trip to the Outer Banks in North Carolina, a few hours from where she used to live in Virginia. That’s when she found her first big seashells—a couple of knobbed whelks—and was hooked.

“The beach was my place to get away from the realities and struggles of everyday life,” she said. “I would go as often as I could, some days driving several hours just to spend time there. It was therapy.”

What started in 2018 as a place to store beach memories has grown into combined Instagram and TikTok pages with over 150,000 followers. Williams’ pages are focused just as much on pretty beachcombing videos as ethical shelling tips. She has videos about how to tell if a sand dollar is alive, tips for what to do when you find a live shell and must-have gear for shelling trips.

“I was also passionate about protecting the ocean and researched how over-harvesting of seashells, among other factors such as climate change, development, toxic algae blooms, etc., impact the ocean environment,” Williams said.

Her passion for marine conservation led her to create her own “keys to ethical shelling”—1. Never take living shells or creatures, 2. Never over-collect and 3. Return shells to the beach and sea when they are no longer wanted.

“I was never expecting the response I would get to this, but so many people have messaged me to say that they’ve learned so much through my page and are now practicing ethical shelling as well,” she said.

Travel several hundred miles north and you’ll find the Beach Bummin’ Dad, a.k.a. Harley Sampson Jr., frequenting Florida’s Panhandle beaches. On YouTube and TikTok , Sampson shares shelling trips and tips from Emerald Coast beaches like Navarre, Pensacola and St. George Island.

“I am amazed at how you can check one stretch of beach and not find much, then walk a half mile or drive to a nearby beach, and you’ll find tons of shells,” he said. “Secondly, it is interesting to see how the species vary across the state.”

In southwest Florida, look for popular tulip shells, cones, lace murex and moon snails. In his backyard, scotch bonnets and flat scallops are common finds.

Sampson also created the Florida Shelling Report , which aggregates news, tips and shell finds from groups around the state. The under-a-minute videos are another way shellers like Sampson stay connected and share their treasures.

Like with any collecting hobby, there are rare “shells of a lifetime” that shellers are always on the lookout for. That includes the giraffe-patterned Junonia sea snail and the lion’s paw scallop, Sampson said.

“It’s not uncommon to see hundreds of people along stretches of Sanibel and Marco Island hunched over in the ‘Sanibel stoop,’” he said. “Don’t get me wrong, the junonia is a beautiful shell, but we have to remember that any seashell is just a part of our overall journey. The surroundings, the sun on our shoulders and the sand between our toes are what wash away the stress of everyday life; the shell is just the icing on the cake.”
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