Beach Report 8/23/22

Another mild August day for us. Temperature just about 80, with a light north wind, and partly cloudy skies 

Not the best fossil day ever, but better than many recently. We found 16 fairly ordinary shark's teeth, but Georgia found the biggest, gnarliest fossil Geoduck pearl ever.

Beach Report 3/6/22

It was the first day in short sleeves for me since sometime in fall; the temperature is in the high 60s at the beach, and near 75 at home. Tomorrow is supposed to be warmer, 80 ish, followed by a storm and a sharp drop back to the 50s on Tuesday. March in Maryland. 

There were quite a lot of people out on the beaches, and Skye got her fair share of pets. As far a fossils, it was a good day, the tide was low, there was lots of productive shell hash and gravel, and the waves were about ideal, moving stuff around by not making it too hard to grab. Between us we managed 35 teeth, none of which were especially grand.

However, I did find another Geoduck (aka Panopea) pearl. I'm starting to think about getting one sawed into sections to reveal the concentric layers of shell material, maybe even polish them and make a necklace . . .

A basic sandcastle. Castles made of sand, fall into the sea, eventually. 

Pearls Before Swine . . .

Or at least paleontologists: The Bay Net, First Ever Fossilized Pearl Recently Unearthed At Calvert Cliffs

A recent fossil pulled from Calvert Cliffs has garnered some attention from the Calvert Marine Museum and many others on social media. The following message was posted by CMM on Facebook:

“Assistant curator, Dr. Victor Perez, recently found a very interesting fossil. This is a fossil pearl and it’s the first of its kind from the Calvert Cliffs!

I'm surprised more haven't been found, but a small round object is pretty easy to overlook. Maybe we can come up with one.

Unfortunately, the pearl was not found with the clam that produced it, so we are not certain what species made it. However, based on comparisons with modern pearls, it most likely came from the Quahog clam Mercenaria cuneata.

Clams produce pearls as a defense mechanism when they sense an irritant within their shell, such as a sand grain or parasite. The clam excretes a calcareous fluid that surrounds the irritant.

It's a long way to a pearl necklace if this is the first they've found.

The fluid is continuously excreted and forms concentric layers around the irritant. There is one other type of fossil pearl known from the Calvert Cliffs, which is produced by the Panopea clam.

These pearls look very different from the one shown here.”

Georgia found two of those Panopea (also called Geoduck) pearls last year after seeing what they were on the Facebook fossil board. They're interesting, but not particularly gemlike. 

The Wombat has a double stuffed Rule 5 Double Scoop Sunday: W*ng D*ng Sw**t P**nt*ng running at The Other McCain.

This Would Make Me Happy as a Clam

Actually, I think clams don't experience happiness too much, but: At Va. Shore eatery, woman bites clam, finds $3K pearl

A Virginia Beach woman is happy as a clam after finding a rare 41/2-carat lavender pearl in a littleneck purchased at the Great Machipongo Clam Shack in Nassawadox.

"I bit down on it and I pulled it out and said, 'Look at this,'" said Kathleen Morelli.
Billy Bowen of B&E Seafood in Willis Wharf, who has been in the clam-growing business for a quarter century, said he has never found a pearl in a clam grown through aquaculture like the one Morelli bit into.

The littleneck, grown in Hog Island Bay, likely was between 1 1/2 and 2 years old, he said. "In the natural clams you could find them in there, about once a month you could find them. But in all my experience, I have never seen one to come out of an aquaculture clam – it's very rare," Bowen said.

The pearl's large size, found in such a small clam, makes it even more unusual.
"We've been buying from him for years. When he told me that he has never seen one in an aquacultured clam, I said, 'Gosh, that's fascinating,'" said Jean Mariner of the Clam Shack.

I guess pearls are rarer in aquaculture clams because they're raised off the bottom, and don't get the grit that grows into pearls.  But at $3,000 a pearl, it would behoove someone to try to reproduce the process like they do with pearl oysters.

Kinda cool, but worth $3,000?