The sea and coast holds a great fascination for most of us, and walking the beach can unearth the most wonderful treasures, from smooth glass to round pebbles, pieces of driftwood and, of course, the most collectible, shells. Unfortunately for these wondrous living creatures, this spells doom, as people will go to great lengths and pay hefty prices for these little creatures, which results in the harvesting of a living infrastructure which will not last forever.
And living proof of this is the fact that, walking the beach does not often turn up many shells, and in some areas, none at all. I have sketched some of my beach finds, but nothing can portray the beauty of some of these as well as the living specimen.
I personally never buy shells from any shops and only collect what I can find on the beach and my collection dates from many years ago of collecting on the beaches of our North Coast (KwaZulu Natal, South Africa).
Camera : Kodak EasyShare C195
Pencil and ink sketches with colourwash
Today, many of our shell species are endangered, including the beautiful Cowrie shell. Unfortunately, people’s love of the cowrie shell has pushed some species
toward extinction. Instead of collecting them, it would be far better
to admire them where they are or look at pictures of cowrie shells.
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