Story & Photos By Katherine Pollock
Many Islanders are content to let the tourists have the beaches for the summer months and wait until fall to beach comb. I have to admit, with the exception of sea beans, about 80 percent of my entire beach finds have come in the fall and winter months. The cooler weather makes beachcombing more comfortable for folks who avoid the blazing summer days. If you haven’t yet tried fall beachcombing yet, I would certainly recommend it.
You can expect to find lots of Whelks, Quahogs and Sand dollars on the beach at this time because many of these species die when the water gets cold; thus they wash up more in fall than in summer.
You can sometimes find Sundials by the bucket load and barnacles by truckload. Every year is different. If we’re lucky enough to get the added bonus of a high tide during a storm, call in sick and go beachcombing. I’ve considered it.
Once the weather gets cold, just bundle up and dress in layers. I wear a T-shirt, sweatshirt and a wind-proof jacket with a hood. Gloves are a must, although if they get wet your hands don’t stay very warm. For the hard-core beachcomber a pair of gloves made for scuba divers works very well. Once they get wet they will insulate your hands to stay warm just like a wet suit does for surfers. Take a nice hot cup of coffee or a mug of hot chocolate. You’ll start to warm up as soon you start finding exciting things.
If the cold weather keeps you inside during the winter months there are still plenty of indoor beachcombing activities you can partake in. I use the winter months to polish sea beans in a tumbler. I have a very small tumbler so it takes a few days to polish about ten beans at a time.
I also sort through piles of shark teeth looking for rare ones that I may have missed at first glance. Hammerhead teeth are the ones I look for. They closely resemble other species and can easily be missed. Hammerhead teeth are ten times rarer than bull shark teeth, the most common tooth found on our beach.
I also sort through sea glass looking for rare and unusual pieces. Look closely for writing on glass that can identify it. Check for unusual colors. Amber and purple are two rarer colors of sea glass. You can also make a mosaic craft with the mounds of sea glass you have. Spread all the pieces out on a table and see what you can create.
By Katherine Pollock

Asphaltum has been washing ashore for thousands of years, long before any oil rigs existed
You may have seen or even stepped on a gooey tar-like substance on the beach. It’s generally in the sea grass and sometimes hard to spot because it blends in with the dark dried sea grass. On very hot days it can stick to your shoe; or, if you are barefoot, it will leave a hard-to-get-off black smudge on your foot. If it looks and smells like asphalt, then what you have found is Asphaltum. The little blobs are usually about three to six inches in diameter and about an inch thick but sometimes larger pieces wash up. Some of the older pieces are very hard, more like coal. You might find shells and sand imbedded into the surface. You can even find pieces shaped and rolled by hand.
Your first thoughts might be that an oil company was to blame for the stuff washing ashore. But this is one phenomenon that oil companies have no part of. Asphaltum has been washing ashore for thousands of years, long before any oil rigs existed. The stuff oozes up from the ocean floor naturally from the seepage far beneath the Gulf of Mexico. Since it hardens when it comes in contact with cold water and floats away in small amounts it most likely hasn’t caused any environmental threat to birds or sea life. Although I would imagine an unwitting sea turtle has probably swallowed a chunk and felt the ill effects.
The islands’ first beachcombers, the Karankawa Indians, were some of the first to find the tar useful. Five hundred years ago they gathered the gummy substance and melted it down. In the molten stage it had many uses. One important use was to coat the bottoms of their canoes, making them more waterproof and longer lasting. They also used it to decorate pottery. You might find shards of the sandy colored earthenware made of a sand and paste known as Rockport Pottery on the beach. Patterns of black, wavy and geometric lines, dots and triangles were used to adorn their bowls and vases. Some vessels used to hold liquids were coated with a thick black layer to help keep the liquids in.
Asphaltum was most widely used by Coastal Indians as an adhesive. They mended cracked pottery and glued broken pieces back in place. It has also been used to create tools similar to a hoe made out of a half quahog shell with asphaltum used to adhere it to a stick. Arrow heads have also been found along the coast with traces of black substance on the base where it appears the tar was used to help glue the arrowhead to the shaft.
So be careful where you step while you’re on the beach and take a closer look at it when you find it. Imagine how much you would need to coat your canoe!
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By Katherine Pollock

Tally Calvert’s “Wall of Lost Soles.” Courtesy Photo
During my years of beachcombing I’ve met collectors of just about everything I could imagine you will find on the beach. It wasn’t until last year that I heard about a gal from Galveston that had a unique collection of beach finds from the west end. I guess you could call her a beachcomber with a shoe fetish.

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