To help participants of the Grote Schelpenteldag on their way, shell desks along the Dutch coast were set up in three -in -two locations. There, Tellers get the search card sea shells and the large beach shellpent day infold form. The only thing that the voluntary shell counters have to be able to be able to count is up to a hundred counting was indicated in advance. “Well, I have lost count, I believe,” says a participant.
Spread throughout the beach, various groups of people are tucked forward to the sand, looking for, said very cru, the exoskelets of crustaceans and shellfish. Occasionally the civil scientists move their hand to the sand, to choose a shell and throw them in their bucket or bag. The intention: collect a hundred shells that sort into 23 shells and 8 snail species. Counting per species then how much there are and filling in that data on the form that may be returned to the organization.
From the Wadden to Zeeuws-Vlaanderen there is counting. And not only that, even in Belgium and along the coast of France, they count what is on the beach to get a better picture of how things are going. Because of course it sounds comical, counting shells, but it does have a goal. “What you find on the beach is a mirror of life in the sea,” says Frank Wesselingh, researcher at Naturalis and Professor Paleobiology in Maastricht.
He explains the importance of knowing how things are under the sea level on the basis of the Wulk. “Look, this is the shell of a wulk,” he says, and gets from a transparent box, with cotton wool, a 10 -centimeter snail house. “De Wulk is a top preacher, a lion, of great importance to keep the ecosystem functioning.” In the 1980s it suddenly went very badly with the Wulk, they discovered through monitoring.
“In the end it turned out that paint used in shipping ensured that male wulks turned into females, making reproduction impossible.” The paint was forbidden and the population is, slowly but surely, recovering. “That is why observation is so important.”
This is the second year that we participate, we make a tradition of it
“What have you found?”
It is observed. Parents with children, people of age, but also in love couples from early twenty, search with buckets and trays in their hand for shells. There is also one large group. They are here via Sol, a welfare organization in Leiden. “This is the second time that we have the Schelpenteldag as an activity,” says Elles van Capel (48), of the organization. “This is possible thanks to Naturalis and the nature around the corner. They have paid the bus for the participants.” It is the fifth time that Naturalis, together with other organizations, is organizing the Schelpenteldag.
They are now here with thirty parents and children. “A number of people have canceled because of Ramadan.” Houcine El Baroudi (47) is there, with his sons Anwar (7) and Moumou (5). The oldest would actually have a football match today, says El Baroudi, but he still wanted to go to the beach. “This is more fun,” he says.
Moumou runs screaming over the beach from Capel. “What have you found?” She asks. “I have a starfish, I have a starfish!” In his hand he does indeed hold a starfish, even bigger than his hand. “Nice,” he says. After which he puts him back in the water.
Further on is Caroline Rijnbeek (58). She started talking to one of her friends and therefore lost the count. “This is the second year that we are participating, we make it a tradition.” Not counting, but looking for shells was a tradition for her. Together with her mother, a born Katwijk, she often searched her in her childhood for Venusschelpen on this beach. “Happiness shells, my mother called it.”
The search (l) and sorting the shells, in 23 shells and 8 snail species.
Photos Walter Autumn
Caroline still collects them, now with her own children. “Unfortunately, Grandma is no longer there, but that’s why we collect them now for her. Next to a photo of her is a jar, I fill it with lucky shells.”
Back on the terrace, the real work starts. Because counting is one, but sorting the shells a second one. A sword sheath (razor) is of course easy to distinguish from a mussel, but when participants arrive at the ‘The three beach shells’ – the most common shells on our beaches – it becomes difficult. They can hardly be distinguished from each other. “Experts also have difficulty with this,” says Wesselingh.
Look, this is the shell of a curlew, a top preacher, of great importance to keep the ecosystem functioning
Land keeper Martin Cade (81) also sometimes doesn’t know for sure. Just like Strandjutter Matthijs IJslievaart (38), who tries to learn from a gift how he can distinguish the shells from each other. “I think this is an oval beach shell,” says IJslievaart, but still doubts.
“At the back it is actually less oval, isn’t it?”
At the next he is more secure of his case. “This is a semi -dressed beach shell. Anyway?” He asks a gift. “If that is not the case, I will go crazy.”
Gift takes over the shell from him and looks through a magnifying glass. “There is to argue about it.”
“Still a doubt,” sighs IJslievaart. And then, delighted: “Look! A nun! Finally something else.”
Take action
The nuns are not doing well, says Wesselingh. “They are actually cooked by the too warm seawater.” And of course there are more external influences that make residents of the North Sea difficult. “Life in the sea is subject to numerous changes, he says.” From supplements (the spraying of sand) to warming up sea water temperature, to wind farms and a changing fauna composition, for example by exotics. ” The purpose of the Schelpenteldag is to build a dataset to be able to monitor the consequences of those changes, so that action can be taken if necessary, such as with the Wulk.
Last year 50,000 shells were found, the hope is that there are even more this year. Sometimes there is a gift from nature in between. Moumou, who appears to have a good eye, has found a very old shell. Wesselingh carefully shows it. “It looks like a Mediterranean shell, which was used as a pilgrim shell – in the Middle Ages.” He will investigate whether that hypothesis is correct. So you see, he says. “There are always surprises on the beach.”