Most people are familiar with the story of a beachcomber who encounters a child on the beach surrounded by starfish. The child is tossing starfish one by one into the ocean. The beachcomber asks the child why he is bothering to toss starfish back since there are so many it won’t make a difference. The child replies, while tossing a starfish into the ocean, “well, it makes all the difference to this one.”
Walking on Cayucos beach recently, we found the beach covered with hundreds of sand dollars. An extremely high tide followed by a very low tide resulted in numerous sand dollars stranded on the beach. Many had died but we found quite a few still alive. Although the original intent had been to exercise, the walk turned into a rescue operation. We scooped up as many live sand dollars as possible and returned them to the sea. Did we save them all? No, but I like to believe we made a difference to a few.
Sand dollars are marine animals with hard bodies covered by short dark purple spines (top). They are echinoderms and are related to starfish and sea urchins. Sand dollars live on the sandy sea floor. The white sand dollars found on beaches are actually the skeletons of sand dollars (bottom).
Have you ever rescued a sea animal you’ve found on the beach?
For more information about sand dollars take a look at
http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/sand-dollars-are-sea-urchins-please.html
The starfish story is adapted from The Star Thrower, by Loren Eiseley (1907 – 1977)
The Legend of the Sand Dollar is a fitting picture book for the Easter season as it uses a sand dollar to explain the story of Christ’s suffering and resurrection.
Written by Chris Auer and illustrated by Rick Johnson Zonderkidz ages 4-8
Lovely post about some of the loveliest things we can find on a beach. It must have been amazing to see so many on the Cayucos’s beach. I’ve never seen any still alive. Bravo to you for saving some! I like how you link your persaonal experience to a children’s book. Thanks for sharing!
Isn’t it fun to find treasures on the beach? Have you been beach combing in Maine? Makes me think of Gift From the Sea. I think it is time to re-read this gem of a book.
I love your blog, Claire, and I love sand dollars! As kids we used to collect them on Puget Sound. We saw live ones at the zoo in the touch and feel tank when my kids were little. What blog is this? Word press? Blogger? Something else? I like the layout very much. Is it easy to manage? I signed up for your email notifications.
Hi Susan,
Isn’t it fun to find treasures on the beach?
This is a wordpress blog. I worked with a designer I found online to help me set it up. I am not a techie person so I am always learning something new.
Thanks for visiting and I’ll be visiting Andi’s blog at http://www.circlecadventures.com/
Hi Claire,
It’s amazing how you treasured things both living and non-living. You really have an eye of what it needs to be treasured. Continue your collections of precious things around you.