Summer at the Beach

New York City's estuarine and ocean waters are home to many different invertebrates. One good way to find them is to do a little beachcombing. At low tide on beaches like Plumb Beach and elsewhere in Jamaica Bay you can find tiny mud snails grazing on algae growing on the mud flats. Use a field guide to help you identify the whelk shells, different clams and mussels, as well as spider crabs deposited by waves at the high tide line farther up the beach. Take a picture of what you find during your explorations and share your findings with us.

Knobbed whelk/Wiki images