The water, as is almost always the case with the Gulf, was warmer than I like, almost as warm as the air, so there would be no long swims...though it certainly was calm enough. We wandered out about 100 meters or so to the first sandbar which put the water at about knee depth and sat on the sand.
The sand was firmly packed with that 'wave-like' surface ripple that light tides and surf generate. At first it seemed that there was no life on the bar, and there were very few shells...but as I worked my hand into the sand there came a surprise. There on the surface of the bar I discovered a juvenile queen conch with its ridged shell, beautiful with its peeks and burnished edges...and of course the mollusk peering out in curiosity to see who or what had discovered it. The shell was about 9 inches in length and about 12 in circumference. I kept it out of the water for only a few moments then sat it back down on the floor. Within minutes it was gone, digging into the sand to hide in wait for the evening when it would become an active member of the subsurface community.We shifted positions and to my surprise discovered many more conch below the sand...dozens in fact and though we chose not to pull them from their holds, we marveled at them just the same. What else might lie below the sand in this unfamiliar habitat?
It is estimated that most of Earth's life is in the seas yet undiscovered. While there are only 250000 species of sea life recorded, we have only examined a fraction of the 80% or our world surface covered by water. Every dive yields a new discovery...plants and animal life at thousands of feet living along side methane vents, thriving on chemosynthesis and copper platelets rather than iron rich systems...fish with natural antifreeze swimming in the 28* water of the Antarctic flow...ten foot long Red-worm and whole new legions of crab swarming below light's reach.
Next time you are at the beach take a look...there is a world beyond the shore...
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