outdoors and fitness	« outdoors
Added: August 2, 2007, 1:02 pm	Share    Print    Email

"Every living thing between high tide and low is a colonist who meets his sea of troubles day by day in a quiet but effective manner. Those that you can find will surprise you with both their numbers and their variety. Some of them will be beautiful, some bizarre, but each one fascinating in its own peculiar way." - "From 1001 Questions Answered About the Seashore" by N.J. Berrill and Jacquelyn Berrill.

One of the most pristine and natural adventures you can take on Long Island is walking along any one of our beaches, especially the sandy, dune laden, barrier island beaches along the south shore. Beside the fact that it is cheap, beachcombing provides an educational and exciting opportunity to discover thousands of aspects of Long Island life right there on a regular old beach.

That's why I like to take a walk on the beach, early in the morning before all the tan bodies, drenched in coconut scented oils and barely covered with thin strips of cloth, invade the shoreline.

There are two times of the day when you can really commune with nature on a beach (unless you happen to be one of those lucky ones who own your own little bit of shoreline): Early morning or later in the evening just before sunset. At those moments, when the sun is either ascending or descending there is a quietness, a meditative state that comes over the shore that absorbs you into the landscape, almost without your knowing, you become a part of the beach, the sand, and the roaring, rolling waves.

Beachcombing is a time-honored activity that goes back to Herman Melville's "Omoo" (1847). In that book he described a people who lived in the South Pacific, like drifters, ex-sailors or criminals. These vagrants gave up civilization out of disgrace or disgust and had "gone native." So us beachcombers, we are in good company!

But no trip to the beach is ever the same because the shape of the beach is notorious for changing. Sediment constantly moves along the shoreline by tides and waves. Along the barrier islands the movement is pretty much parallel to the shore through the effects of longshore currents. We do have the dunes with grass and other plant life to stabilize the shore a little and help them from disappearing entirely, but the shore, though romantic, is also so sexy because it is such a harsh mistress. Most organisms can't stand the waves and avoid them by burying underground.

When they go to the great big blue place in the sky the Mollusca leave behind the only thing that they have for us to remember them by, their hard external skeleton-type covering that protects them from the scary world of Long Island's beaches. Ask a Mollusca what he thinks of beachfront property and you're probably going to get a different response from the agents at Daniel Gale.

A Mollusca (or Mollusk) becomes a seashell and about thirty or so of the more colorful ones apparently can buy the island of Manhattan!

Mollusca are hard, grumpy, not given to fits of ideological fantasies of life at sea and are not known to interrupt in conversation, so they are truly the perfect partners for long walks on the beach. One of the true celebrities of the place where the salty water meets the varying grains of white quartz sand is the Atlantic Bay Scallop. From the Family of Pectinidae, the Scallop has a series of blue eyes that weakly detect movement of predators, especially sea stars! Old Blue Eyes, as I call the Atlantic Bay Scallop, is a perfect companion for any beachcombing adventure.

Sure, we have Starfish too but in reality all Starfish are posers since they aren't actually a fish but are Phylum Echinodermata. Considered by most to be passive little creatures, they are actually voracious predators. It is said that Starfish feed on Mollusks making them natural enemies. Sea Urchins are members of the Phylum, Echinodermata, Class, Echinoidea and they have long spines instead of legs, which they use for camouflage, locomotion and, of course, for defense since the sea is so dangerous. While Sea Urchin are primarily vegetarian (always in fashion in the Hamptons) they are related to the Starfish so they are out as beachcombing partners. And finally, Crabs are delicious but not in a way that makes them good companions because they are very unfriendly.

I like Scallops. Unlike most bivalves, like clams, they don't burrow in the sand. They lie on the bottom and move by using a muscle to open and close valves, ejecting water around the hinge. Cool right?

There are other companions that are horrible beachcombers and can actually cause much consternation among the usually gentile Mollusk. I separate them into two categories: Flotsam and Jetsam, also called Anthropogenic Material. We layman call it trash, which contains but is not limited to: cigarette butts, plastic, glass, bags and wrappers, foamed plastic pieces, caps/lids, paper pieces, beverage bottles, bottle caps, and beverage cans.

Any man-made object or material that winds up abandoned on beaches is an indication of recklessness, thoughtlessness, or catastrophe. Former economic policies regarding garbage disposal will continue to haunt inhabitants of the region indefinitely. (Source: NPS Brochure on Marine Debris.)

In other words: Garbage stinks. Don't litter. Give a hoot, don't pollute. Whatever cliché or slogan you use, please remember not to ruin a beachcomber's day out with a blue-eyed Mollusk by throwing garbage into the water.

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Lon S. Cohen has been a short order cook, a Generation X slacker (aka artist), a fence installer, a marketing designer and once he was the only Jewish kid working on a Christmas Tree lot. There is no order to the aforesaid list. He currently works full time but only to pay the bills for a McMansion, beautiful wife and three lovely children. What he really wants to do is write, podcast, blog and drink a really good IPA. Again, not in any order of importance. Visit him at www.lonscohen.com and contact him by email at lon@lonscohen.com.