Conch Shells

Although we don’t eat the meat inside this mollusk like most people do, Dave likes finding discarded conch shells and making them into horns. In fact he is known as the Conch Man. When they are small they don’t have a big outer lip, called a bell, and are called ‘rollers’ since they tend to roll around in the surf. When mature, the shells have large bells, which are gorgeous and shiny pink inside.


Every year we have conch horn blowing contests and there are certificates given for longest blowing, best sounding, and best looking. Our favorite horn is actually a horse conch, which has a deep rich sound. For the contest we couldn’t resist dressing it up as a Harbor Rat.

I think we’ll have to add “best costumed conch” to the list of prize-winning categories this year.