The recent sea-shell counting day led to some surprising results. Despite the atrocious weather 800 volunteers took part in the event and counted over 38,000 sea-shells. For a first time people in the Netherlands and France could join Flemish beachcombers in this exciting operation. Around 15% of shells found today hail from other continents.
Gusts of up to 80km/h and cloudbursts didn’t deter the volunteers that gathered at ten spots along the coast to count sea-shells. “It was difficult” said 10-year-old Sebastian. “As a result of the wind many shells were hidden under the sand, but we did manage to find tons”.
Sebastian’s bucket contained a Japanese oyster, a Chinese hat shell, Baltic clam shells and a few Atlantic jack-knife clams.
“Very much to our surprise many new species are turning up here” says marine biologist Francis Kerckhof. “A Shell Count Day like today generates a lot of data. We found types of shell that are undocumented, but also exotic shells including the Manila clam and the coot clam that ended up here by accident”.
Global warming is partly responsible.
“People used to think it was too cold here, but meanwhile the average water temperature has increased and we see exotic shells like the Manila clam faring well here” says Francis.
The inclusion of the Netherlands and France in the counting effort means counting progressed on 400 km of beach. In all in Flanders and the Netherlands 85,000 shells were counted. Along the Flemish coast last year the Baltic clam was ‘most counted’ followed by the cockle, the mussel and the Atlantic jack-knife clam.
Each year between 50 and 70 varieties of sea-shell are found. 15% of these varieties hail from other continents. Jan Seys of the Flanders Maritime Institute says several types of foreign shells have an easy time adapting to our climes. The count will show how easy they procreate”.
“Sometimes exotic shells are brought here on purpose, but they also may have arrived here by accident. Larvae and snail eggs often travel here in the water of international vessels. Some will thrive here. You notice that with Atlantic jack-knife clams. They arrived in the Eighties and numbers have increased ever since”.