Shells and beach finds on Schiermonnikoog

The shells you find most often

More than a hundred kinds of shells lie on Dutch beaches. The five you come across most often:

• Cockle: the familiar ribbed, rounded shell. Many on the beach are centuries old.
• Cut trough shell: together with the cockle the most common.
• Baltic tellin: small, smooth and the size of a thumbnail, in colours from cream to pink.
• Mussel: the blue-black shell.
• American razor clam: long and narrow, like an old-fashioned razor.

Rare finds

Schiermonnikoog is one of the best places in the Netherlands for the ocean quahog, a rare, sturdy shell. On the Balg you also find large whelks. Other shells along the tideline include the sand gaper, the banded wedge shell, the piddock and the pod razor. Sometimes starfish or sea urchins wash up. The white, oval 'shells' you often see are cuttlebone: the internal shells of cuttlefish.

Tips for shell hunting

• Search along the tideline, where the water leaves the shells.
• The most washes up after a strong storm.
• The eastern tip (the Balg) is the best place for special finds.
• Found something and curious what it is? Have it identified at Schelpenmuseum Paal 14.

Schelpenmuseum Paal 14 (Museums and culture)