There has been a gradual decline of shells that are washing ashore on Galveston Island and collectors are left with more questions than answers about the disappearing treasures on our beaches. 

Have large storms, such as Hurricanes Ike and Harvey, changed the topography of the Gulf floor? Is a shift in currents depositing shells somewhere else? Is the loss of shells a cyclical event? Is it something else entirely? 

To answer these questions, Galveston Monthly opened a conversation with shell collectors, scientists, weather professionals, and beachcombers to get answers as to why this may be happening. While there is more conjecture than scientific proof, some experts and local collectors have given their best educated guesses. 

John Rothbauer grew up in the small central Texas city of Hallettsville and spent his youth visiting the Texas coast. He has spent a lifetime collecting shells and other treasures from the beaches of Galveston, Rockport, and Corpus Christi. 

He built a home in the west end subdivision of Sea Isle in 1977 and lined the walls with local bamboo and collectibles from the Gulf for a stunning effect. 

“Galveston used to be a shell haven,” Rothbauer said. “Pre-Hurricane Ike, during the month of January, we would collect buckets of whole shells of all variations on the beach in Sea Isle. Whelks, rose barnacles, cockles, and full sand dollars were abundant.” 

“These days we find limited, broken shells and the shark’s teeth have all but disappeared. We used to find monster shells after a big storm. The shells were huge; the size of baseball mitts. I have not seen a full sand dollar or rose barnacle or even a shark tooth since probably Hurricane Ike,” he said. 

His wife Maggie remembers the fun days of collecting shells as a family. “We used to take our grandchildren shelling and it was so much fun for all of us. It was nice having another activity on the beach besides swimming and sunbathing with the kids,” she said. 

 

“My mother-in-law was so excited to find shells. John and I would secretly go over to the beach and plant some for her to find, in her later years, as there were no more on the beach. You just can’t duplicate the joy of finding a big, beautiful, fully intact seashell in your own neighborhood.” 

The Rothbauer home is a collector’s haven with dozens of shelves filled with shells of all kinds. Some of their favorites include spotted cockles, murex, rose barnacles, olive shells, and sand dollars. 

Smaller cockles were commonly found but finding a large, intact cockle shell was a prized find, he said. They also used to find large murex shells, which are elongated shells typically with 6-10 rows of short, stout spines and an inner surface that is often brightly colored. 

“Murex seashells are famous for their fantastic variety of ornamentation and a special gland that can be processed to make a vibrant purple dye,” Rothbauer said. 

Rose barnacles were abundant on Galveston beaches a decade ago. They are tall and conical in shape with a pink tinge and live on rocks, bulkheads, and sunken ships. 

 

Olive shells were another favorite find. They are easy to identify as they are long and smooth, measuring up to three inches in length, and mostly green in color. Locating a fully intact sand dollar, which are a species of flat, burrowing sea urchins, was always a prized find, he said.

 Rose barnacles, olive shells and sand dollars are rare finds these days. “I haven’t seen a whole sand dollar since Hurricane Ike hit the area,” said Maggie. 

 What the Experts Believe

While there is no definitive answer as to what has ultimately shifted the shells, experts do agree that ocean conditions from consistent offshore storms may be responsible for breaking up shells before they wash ashore. Tim Osborn, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Regional Navigation Manager for the Central Gulf Coast says he has heard many anecdotal observations on such a decline in whole shells washing up on Galveston beaches. 

 “In recent years, this [loss of shells] seems to be observed in shore and beach areas across the Gulf to north Florida,” Osborn said.

 “We have seen seven consecutive years of major category landfalls across the Gulf of Mexico. Two thousand seventeen was one of the most active and impactful hurricane seasons on record, which included Hurricane Harvey.” 

 This may have contributed to a change in the topography Image courtesy of Pamela Rylander-Araujo Unbroken whole sand dollars found on Galveston beaches by Pamela Rylander-Araujo of the local shelf and therefore a change in the depository of shells on Galveston beaches. And it may not have. 

 We spoke with representatives from the U.S. Geological Survey, and they were unable to give definitive answers to this issue but thought this theory might be likely. This is a question that they have been asked, and a conversation that they are having with their colleagues but have come to no conclusion yet. 

 Other experts say heavy storm activity may actually uncover long-buried shells and say the best time for shelling would be after a disturbance in the Gulf. 

 We were able to connect with Jace Tunnell, director of community engagement at the Harte Research Institute who gave an opinion on the best time for beach finds.

 “In my experience, generally, shells come in waves during different times of the year, typically after storm events or after dredging of a ship channel and that is when all the shells become exposed,” Tunnell said. 

 Why we have seen a gradual decline in shells washing up on Galveston beaches or whether they will ever return in abundance is a mystery. While large, intact shells are hardto- find treasures on most Galveston beaches, local shell collectors say that beachcombers should have the most success at the San Luis Pass, Pointe San Luis, and Pointe West beaches as well as the Bolivar Peninsula beaches. G