Times of the Islands Spring 2021

MELISSA HERES
Scallop shells come in a variety of colors and sizes.
estingly, parrotfish actually use their specialized beaks
(hence their names) to eat live corals as a snack, digesting
the coral tissue and processing the now-pulverized
coral skeleton as waste. Those of you coral lovers, like
myself, might be wondering if parrotfish are bad for coral
reefs, considering they spend all day eating coral. In fact,
they also eat a lot of macroalgae, which is detrimental to
reef health, and allowing parrotfish to thrive is vital to
keep our reefs beautiful.
Moving down the beach, we can keep finding treasures.
The most obvious find for a beachcomber might be
the beautiful shells of gastropods. Although the following
list is far from comprehensive, it will give you some
insight into what you might find on the beaches of the
TCI and the stories they can tell.
Conch
Perhaps the most well-known and identifiable shell you
might stumble upon is the queen conch shell. With its
recognizable rosy pink interior and flamboyant flared lip,
this conch isn’t just good eating—it’s featured prominently
on the TCI’s national flag. Many of the conch you
will stumble upon are likely “knocked,” where a hammer
and chisel have been used to open a rectangular mark in
the spire to extract the conch meat.
Easily confused with queen conch are milk conch, as
their exteriors might look similar to someone unfamiliar
with conch. Milk conch, however, tend to have thicker lips
that don’t flare quite as much. These conch also lack the
characteristic pink interior and instead have a milky white
interior, hence their name.
Scallops
Scallops can come in all kinds of beautiful color variations.
They can be differentiated from other shells by
their distinct auricles, or ear-like projections on the right
and left sides of the shell ligament.
Flamingo Tongues
Flamingo tongues are beautifully orange and white colored
creatures underwater. Once dead, however, their
shells are a stark white because their coloring comes
from their mantle, a thin layer of tissue that covers the
shell.
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