Explore Tidal Keepsakes

Shells, beaches, guides, articles, curated collections, and coastal favorites — all in one editorial index.

Start with a shell everyone finds

Popular Shells

Shell · east-coast

A large sinistral (left-handed) whelk of the U.S. southeast, prized for the streaks of colour that run down its spire.

Shell · east-coast

Rounded helmet shell with a woven basket-check pattern — North Carolina's state shell.

Shell · gulf-coast

A deep-water volute famous on Sanibel Island for its cream body and neat rings of chocolate spots.

Shell Family · east-coast

Fan-shaped bivalves with radiating ribs and two ear-like auricles at the hinge — the family Pectinidae.

Shell · east-coast

South Carolina's state shell — a glossy cylindrical olive with fine zigzag markings that resemble handwriting.

Shell Family · east-coast

Rounded, polished gastropods (family Naticidae) that leave the neat drilled hole on so many empty bivalves.

Shell Group · east-coast

Flattened burrowing echinoderms with the five-pointed 'flower' pattern on top — not a shell at all, but a sea urchin test.

Shell · gulf-coast

A compact, heavy-bodied true conch of the U.S. southeast — Florida's most reliably found strombid on Gulf beaches.