Fighting conchs

The mosaic is just a partial shot of my booty from one morning on the beach at Marco Island. Particularly prevalent were the shells pictured singularly...the Florida Fighting Conch. They are 2-3 inches long and live in the sand in the shallows. For obvious reasons it's illegal to take live shells as we want to keep the supply coming. Even if this were not so, it's not wise to mess with the fighting conch! I first encountered them on Sanibel Island, near here, about 10-12 years ago. Inexperienced as I was, I grabbed the first nice one I saw and stashed it in my bag. A minute or two later I heard thrashing inside the bag. The critter in the conch shell had been deep within his home, and when he figured out he was no longer on the beach he extended a couple inches out of his shell and commenced whipping around in a belligerent manner. Thus the name. Needless to say, I promptly tossed him back in the Gulf and checked all subsequent fines carefully to determine whether they were occupied or not, and only took the empty ones.