Sand Sculpture Mermaids, Sanibel Island

People ca't resist making sand sculptures on the beach. It used to be castles, but now I see a lot of other really elegant sculptures with beach bling to enhance them. Other beach combers enjoy looking at them,too, so it brings a lot of joy.

This Mama Mermaid has seaweed hair, and such an elegant color! Her shell necklace has a worn center from a fighting conch as a pendent and her scales are represented by dozens of bivalves.She is protected by a circle of Pen Shells.

This young mermaid was close by. Her hair is portrayed by a string of egg cases. Univalve shells like conchs, welks, and tulips lay their eggs in tough cases in long strings and attach them to some underwater feature. The attachment may not be stable and may rip loose and the waves will fling the egg cases up on the shore. Holding the cases up to the light you can see dozens of tiny shells in the cases. Most of the ones I have examined had 3 to 6 baby shells in each little disk. Each shell is typically about the size of a pin head and the disk is filled with fluid. The cases themselves are very tough and good luck on trying to break one open with your fingers.I have thrown ones that still had fluid back into the water, but without being attached, I imagine they end up back on the beach again.