Legal Sand Dollars

Phenomenal fun fact in Florida: Sand dollars are also known as “sea cookies,” “sea cookies,” “sand cakes,” “cake hedgehogs,” and “snapper cookies.” Storm season is the best season to find sand dollars in Florida. Bad weather travels up the ocean, helping to expose shells and sand dollars, which are then washed away by powerful waves. From May to October, storm season is generally considered Florida`s storm season: thunderstorms are quite common at this time of year and can send the sea into a frenzy. While we`re used to living things wearing legs, wings, or some other obvious means of transportation, sand dollars have a much more subtle way of moving: a water ship system. Not only does this system help them move, but it`s also responsible for pumping filtered seawater so they can eat, Biery says, noting that the preferred diet of sand dollars is seaweed scraped off hard surfaces with their teeth. They also eat plankton and other foods that float freely in the water. In Lee County, which includes Sanibel, you are not allowed to take live sand dollars with you. If you do, you can expect 60 days in jail and a $500 fine. In Manatee County, you are only allowed to take two dollars of live sand.

Most Floridians would encourage you to return the dollars of sand living in the ocean. There are plenty of dead sand dollars to be found, and these little creatures are an important part of the coastal ecosystem. The best practice for beach beachgoers is to collect only dead or petrified specimens. Sand dollars cannot survive on water for more than a few minutes. If you find one alive, take it home by gently placing it on the seabed so it can continue to play its important role in Sanibel`s ecosystem. One could easily assume that sand dollars are like shells – lifeless fragments ripe to be collected. But in fact, they are often living beings who need your help to return home. Sand dollars can`t survive on water, so if you find one alive, carefully put it back in the water.

If you find a dollar of sand on the beach, it`s probably no longer alive and you can take it. Even sand dollars that look gray or brown are dead if they don`t have a tiny layer of hairy spines. And if you find one that`s rock hard and unbreakable, you`re lucky to have found a fossil of a sand dollar, a dollar of sand that`s definitely dead! It is customary to return home after your trip with a bag full of shells of all shapes, colors and sizes as a souvenir of your summer. Cockles, cones, whelks, newts, mussels, olives and oyster shells fill the bag with a few dollars of sand. Bombing is always a fun beach activity, and finding a dollar of sand is a special treat. These delicate skeletons, or “tests,” are distinctly round and have a fun five-pointed, almost floral pattern in the center. In life, they are covered with tiny eyelashes and often have bright colors. Unfortunately, sand dollars are not regulated here. However, we sincerely ask our locals and guests to return dollars of living sand to their homes in the sea.

Teach your children and peers the right behavior by being thoughtful and protecting our precious environment. They are living things that play an important role in our ecosystem. The best thing to take home with you are beautiful photos and timeless memories! So how can you tell a dead sand dollar from a living dollar? What exactly are they when they live? Are they at risk? Before you go to the beach, learn the answers to these important questions and more. Another reason for the name of the sand dollar is that they are roughly coin-shaped. Ancient folklore says that the sand dollar is a coin lost by a mermaid, or that it is a failed coin of the lost city of Atlantis. These are fun ideas, but at the end of the day, it`s just happy little sea urchins digging at the bottom of the ocean – and in their own way, it`s just as fun. But this symmetry is not what places it in the group of echinoderms (Greek for “thorny skin”). In fact, living sand dollars (unlike their dead, relatively smooth counterparts) have an endoskeleton covered with a layer of spiny skin, according to Leah Biery, director of communications at Sanibel Sea School in Sanibel, Florida.

“The skeleton or test consists of calcium carbonate bony plates, the ossicles held together by connective tissue,” she wrote in an email. “They don`t have brains, just a ring of nerves.” If you happen to come across a dollar of live sand, act quickly. “Sand dollars won`t survive on water for very long,” Rader says. “If you find a person alive on the beach, you can carefully send them back to the ocean.” Carefully hold the sand dollar in the palm of your hand and observe the thorns. If they are still moving, it is alive. Sand dollars lose their backbone very soon after their death. Another option is to observe its color, which changes due to overexposure to the sun. After the death of a sand dollar, its color changes from brownish purple (alive) to silvery white (dead). One of the first rules of collecting on the beach is to make sure that when you bring something home, you don`t take anything with you that is still alive.

You should always make sure there is nothing at home in the shells you collect, make sure the barnacles are not yet alive when you get home, and make sure you don`t take any live sand dollars with you. Sand dollars are valuable finds on the beach: everyone, from children to grandfather, loves to find these sea discs. Luckily for anyone who comes to the beautiful beaches of the Sunshine State, collecting sand dollar tests is perfectly legal here. If you`ve ever held a dollar of sand, chances are a substance was left on your hand called echinochrome that probably colored your skin a little yellow. If you notice this after placing a dollar of sand on your palm, then this is another good indicator that the sand dollar is still alive. If you have a saltwater recreational fishing license, collecting dollars of live sand is allowed in most places, but the best collectibles are white tests: there`s really no reason to take a dollar of live sand out of the sea. So go to the beach and be sure to bring your hat and a sand shovel. There are plenty of sand dollars along Florida`s many beaches. If you`ve been hanging out on Walton County`s sugary beaches or diving in the clear waters of the gulf for the past few weeks, you`ve probably seen a dollar or two of sand.

Many know what sand dollars look like, but fewer know what they actually are. Sand dollars don`t have many natural enemies: lobsters, sea otters, starfish, and some birds hunt them, but their strategy of digging in the sand helps keep them safe. When they are washed ashore, they dry out and die. Otherwise, like most other living things, they simply succumb to the ravages of old age. Sand dollars have an average life expectancy of about 8 to 10 years. Sand dollars are surprisingly social and prefer to hang out at the bottom of the ocean with many other sand dollars. This is especially important during the breeding season, as participation in a large group offers a better chance of success. “Sand dollars multiply through spawning, which means that both males and females release eggs and sperm into the water column,” says Brasher. “Once fertilized, sand dollar eggs hatch into freely-floating microscopic larvae that barely resemble their parents.” The larvae then undergo a series of developmental changes until they develop their test and settle on the seabed. Even worse, taking a dollar of live sand and killing it could disrupt the local ecosystem. McNeal says that if a dollar of live sand is collected, he will essentially hold his breath and soon die if he doesn`t get home.

The best place to find sand dollars in Florida is Sanibel. Sanibel and Captiva are located south of Sarasota, near Fort Myers. Sanibel is a great place to visit: it has some of Florida`s most pristine beaches, pristine nature preserves, and fun local character. Also, its position jutting into the Gulf of Mexico makes it a phenomenal bombing beach, and sand dollars are commonly found on most beaches here. We often find dollars of sand on our beaches, and their beautiful skeletons are a great souvenir, but it`s illegal to pick them up if they`re alive. Living sand dollars play an important role in our local ecosystem by controlling populations of small invertebrates and serving as food for some larger organisms, including nine-armed starfish. That`s when a dollar of sand needs to be put back in the water, and it`s illegal to remove a dollar of live sand from your home.