I thought I had collected sea shells etc. selectively, but over the years it still ended up being far too many. Mostly from two spots on the edge of two oceans: Laguna Beach, California, and Mandurah, Western Australia. (Though I grew up on the coast, the surf at my home beach is cold and rough, spitting out broken sand dollar fragments and little else.)
In my 30s I learned that the accumulated effects of tourists removing seashells from beaches are measurable and detrimental to the beach's ecology - did you know? So these days you'll catch me treasuring the ones I have, and enjoying the rest where I find them.
