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Just a few more weeks and I'll say good-bye to my beach hunts until cooler weather. Biting flies, sand fleas and beach goers will invade my quiet domain, and I am a solitary hunter. So I've been making the best of the dry days and bemoaning the wet ones, because September is a long way off and I'll have to be content with gardening, swimming, and model railroading during the hot, humid months ahead.
I would like to say I found the mother of all points today, (and in a way I did because Ron's gorgeous KY Hornstone blade arrived!) but I came up empty handed, except... I did find the mother of all shells! Meet Rapana venosa or veined Rapa whelk--invader of the Bay. Rapa whelks are natives of Japan and Korea. By the 1940s they had spread into the Black Sea and within 30 years they had spread to the Adriatic, Aegean, and Mediterranean Seas. They are now showing up in the English Channel and North Sea. In 1998 the first Rapa whelk was discovered during a trawl survey by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. By then the invasion was already well underway.
Transported in ballast water by large tankers and cargo carriers, the Rapa has found the Bay hospitable. With few enemies and a huge appetite for shellfish, they threaten the Bay's clam, oyster, and scallop industry. An individual female can lay as many as 200,000 in a single egg mass and in a single breeding season she may lay ten or more egg masses. The numbers are staggering and scientists speculate it will eventually extend its range from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras. so you coastal hunters, watch out!
Because they spend so much time on the bottom and are very heavy bodied, the size of a baseball, they rarely wash ashore. This one washed up during a strong storm with NE winds reaching 45 mph. Despite it's infamous reputation, it produces one gorgeous shell! I'm thrilled with the find and, Josh ((Kyflintguy), I won't send you this one! Lol!!
I would like to say I found the mother of all points today, (and in a way I did because Ron's gorgeous KY Hornstone blade arrived!) but I came up empty handed, except... I did find the mother of all shells! Meet Rapana venosa or veined Rapa whelk--invader of the Bay. Rapa whelks are natives of Japan and Korea. By the 1940s they had spread into the Black Sea and within 30 years they had spread to the Adriatic, Aegean, and Mediterranean Seas. They are now showing up in the English Channel and North Sea. In 1998 the first Rapa whelk was discovered during a trawl survey by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. By then the invasion was already well underway.
Transported in ballast water by large tankers and cargo carriers, the Rapa has found the Bay hospitable. With few enemies and a huge appetite for shellfish, they threaten the Bay's clam, oyster, and scallop industry. An individual female can lay as many as 200,000 in a single egg mass and in a single breeding season she may lay ten or more egg masses. The numbers are staggering and scientists speculate it will eventually extend its range from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras. so you coastal hunters, watch out!
Because they spend so much time on the bottom and are very heavy bodied, the size of a baseball, they rarely wash ashore. This one washed up during a strong storm with NE winds reaching 45 mph. Despite it's infamous reputation, it produces one gorgeous shell! I'm thrilled with the find and, Josh ((Kyflintguy), I won't send you this one! Lol!!
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