Sea Foam Have you ever noticed how some days there is a lot of sea foam on the beach, but other days not much? On those “foamy days” I often get questions about it: Where does it come from? What causes it? This almost always happens on windy days when the wind is blowing onto […]
Ghost Shrimp Under the Beach When you walk along the beach during low tide, across the wet sand, one of the things you notice are all the small holes in the sand. Each hole looks like somebody stuck a pencil down into the sand. The hole you see is just the top end of […]
Shelling on Tybee When I’m out on the beach doing a Tybee Beach Ecology Trip, I will frequently get asked “when are the best times” or “where are the best places for finding shells on Tybee.” My answer generally goes something like this. When it comes to shelling, Tybee is weird! You never know where […]
There is something happening on Tybee’s beach right now that only occurs occasionally every few years. The last time it happened on Tybee was in 2012. As you walk the beach, you might be noticing bunches of the brown seaweed Sargassum washed up. I’ve been getting a few calls, emails and messages asking, “where did all this seaweed come from?”
Why Are There Holes In Some Of Tybee’s Seashells? One of the best features about Tybee Island beach combing is the variety of shells that you can find. From day to day you never know where the best places will be. Tybee has a large variety of marine species because of its position on the […]
Invasion of the Portuguese Man of War This past weekend we’ve seen some reports of some Portuguese Man of War washing up on Tybee’s beach. They look like small (4-6 inch) oblong blue balloons with a tangled mass of short tentacles hanging from below. I had been hearing recently of some washing up on Jacksonville […]
Holes, Bumps and Trails in the Sand by Dr. Joe Richardson – Tybee Beach Ecology Trips When you are walking along Tybee’s beach, you are actually traversing across a wide, dynamic habitat for a number of animals that mostly go unnoticed. The marine biological term for animals that live “in” the bottom is infauna. Some […]
Exploring Tybee Island’s Beaches When you’re visiting the Savannah area, be sure to plan some time to visit the beach on Tybee Island. With its wide sandy oceanfront, there is plenty of space for beach combing, and as I often tell folks, “you never know what you might see on Tybee’s beach!” As a marine […]
Animals on Tybee’s beach A Few of the “What is this?” Because of Tybee Island’s location between Cape Hatteras, NC, and Cape Canaveral, FL, we are in an overlap or transition zone between cool-water and tropical coastal marine faunas and floras. So we get to see plants and animals from both areas. Tybee is […]
Tybee Jellyfish As you walk Tybee’s beach you are likely to see a variety of animals that live in the sand or have washed up from off shore. So it’s not only seashells, sand dollars and fossil shark teeth that you might find; but you are also likely to see animals such as sponges, soft […]
Explore Tybee One of the most pleasant surprises for visitors to Tybee Island is the vast variety of marine animals that occur along its shorelines. Every beach trip is likely to reveal something new that you had not seen previously. Even after spending more than 30 years studying and conducting research along Tybee, I still […]
