The Breeze Magazine of the Lowcountry JUNE 2020

One reason Whelks love South Carolina is the
omnipresent oyster beds. Whelks are predatory and
carnivorous. They eat oysters, worms, mussels,
clams, crustaceans, snails and other mollusks. Some
Whelks stick a part of their shells between the two
sides of an oyster, mussel or clam so that it cannot
close and then they eat them by sucking out the meat
with their hollow proboscis. Tulip Shells batter into
the oyster or other mollusk to feed, using their own
shells as a sort of battering ram Whelks have teeth on
their tongues. Rows of teeth with new ones in back
and old ones in front are used for everything from
scraping seaweed from rocks to carnivorous dining.
The “oyster drill” also called a dog whelk, has a mouth
part that drills a small hole in an oyster, squeezes in
digestive enzymes, and then begins its feast which
sometimes lasts a month on the same oyster.
In England, Whelks are considered fine dining for
people and are very popular. In an average whelk
there are 137 calories, 24g of protein, 0.34g of fat
and 8g of carbohydrates. “Whelks with Parsley and
Garlic Butter” is a popular recipe and is easily made
by boiling the whelks for four minutes, then draining
the water off. They are seasoned by adding 7 cloves of
minced garlic, a couple of spoons of minced parsley,
salt, and pepper with a pinch of cayenne to two sticks
of melted butter. Brave souls dip the whelks into
the butter. Two whelks per person is considered an
adequate serving. Some Americans may have tried
this recipe. Whelks are also exported from Britain to
South Korea where they are considered delicacies.
Dog whelks are found in the inter tidal zone, the area
of the shore covered and exposed by tides. They live
all around the coasts wherever there are barnacles,
oysters or mussels. Dense Mussel beds, using their
sticky threads can trap this type of whelk. Nearly
30% of whelks trapped this way starve to death. In
addition to eating whelks, some people make a fine
red dye – said to improve with age – from the Dog
Whelk (Nucella lapillus). Like the Knobbed Whelk it is
also a carnivorous sea snail.
Ancient peoples punctured shells for jewelry. Shells
with wear signs indicating their use as beads (strung
jewelry) date to about 125,000 years ago. Many
ancient burial sites contain shells. Cowries were used
in traditional African medicine and accompanied the
soul on its journey to another world. In Northern
Ghana, the Lodagaa believed that the dead needed
a fee of 20 cowries to cross the River of Death. The
Seneca thought that shells put in
graves allowed the soul to enter
into the next world. Winnebago
people thought shells were
apparitions of the dead and
placed shells into sacred caves
as memorials. White shells
were representations of birth
and death. Cowries were also
used to tell fortunes by dropping
the shells onto a surface and
interpreting their locations.
Haitians blew into a conch (a
conch is a close cousin to the
whelk) shell to summon voodoo
spirits. The Florida Keys were a
major source of Queen Conches
until the 1970s, but harvesting
29