Shells, shark teeth and fossils — Sebastian, Florida

Near Sebastian, shells, shark teeth and fossil fragments wash up on the Atlantic beaches of the barrier island, from Sebastian Inlet State Park south through the Indian River County parks along A1A to Wabasso Beach.

Sebastian itself faces the Indian River Lagoon, not the ocean, so collecting trips start by crossing the lagoon on the Wabasso Causeway or heading up A1A toward the inlet. The largest single stretch belongs to the state. Over three miles of ocean-facing beaches make Sebastian Inlet State Park a favored site for beachcombing, surfing and fishing, according to the park's experiences and amenities page. The same page notes that rock reefs stretch for miles starting south of Sebastian Inlet in the nearshore waters, the hard bottom that breaks up the surf line on the Indian River County side.

Indian River County runs the public beach parks south of the inlet. The county describes Golden Sands Beach Park, at 10350 Highway A1A, as an ideal spot for swimming, sunbathing, shell collecting, fishing and beach walks (Indian River County). Treasure Shores Beach Park, a 20.8 acre park, is listed as an unguarded beach open daily from 7 a.m. to sunset (Indian River County). Both sit inside the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge corridor, which Indian River County says stretches over 20 miles between Melbourne Beach and Wabasso Beach (Indian River County).

Finds on the Sebastian beaches fall into four legal categories: empty shells and sea glass, shells still holding a living animal, fossils (with shark and ray teeth treated apart from other fossil bone), and historic objects such as 1715 Fleet coins. Each category has its own rule, set by the owner of the sand and by state law, and the category rather than the beach decides what can go home in a bucket.

At Sebastian Inlet State Park, visitors may keep empty seashells, sea glass and shark teeth found between the water line and the toe of the dunes, and nothing else.

State parks start from a general ban on removing anything. The Florida State Parks FAQ carves out one exception for coastal parks: empty seashells, sea glass or shark teeth found between the water line and the toe of the sand dunes in coastal parks with beaches. The same answer adds that seashells with living creatures in them and live sand dollars should be left where they are and not removed. At Sebastian Inlet that keeps collecting on the open beach and off the dunes themselves.

Fossils are treated differently inside the park. The Sebastian Inlet State Park dive rules on the park amenities page state that fossils and artifacts must not be disturbed or removed, and that rule covers the reefs and inlet bottom where divers and snorkelers go. The Florida Museum of Natural History goes further for all such lands: no collecting of any type is allowed inside the boundaries of state parks, national wildlife refuges, national parks or national forests (Florida Museum fossil permit FAQ). A shark tooth on the Sebastian Inlet beach is covered by the park's shell exception; a fossil bone is not.

Access is around the clock. The Sebastian Inlet State Park hours and fees page states the park is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and lists the McLarty Museum as open Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

On the beaches near Sebastian, taking a shell with a living animal inside counts as harvesting marine life and requires a Florida recreational saltwater fishing license, even from shore.

The rule comes from the FWC recreational sea shell collecting page: a Florida recreational saltwater fishing license is required in order to harvest a sea shell containing a living organism, even when harvesting from shore. That turns a live snail or sand dollar picked up at Golden Sands or Treasure Shores into a fishing question, while an empty shell next to it is not. Shells containing live organisms also cannot be sold without a commercial saltwater products license, according to FWC.

Two species are off limits everywhere in Florida, including the Indian River County shore. FWC states that all harvest of the Bahama starfish is prohibited and that possession of live queen conch at any time is prohibited. An empty queen conch shell is a different matter: FWC says it is not unlawful to possess queen conch shells as long as the shell held no living conch when collected and no living conch was killed or removed from it.

The county by county limits that make news on the Gulf coast do not reach Sebastian. FWC lists a ban on taking live shells in Lee County and a limit of two live shells per species per day in Manatee County, and names no special restriction for Indian River County or Brevard County. Statewide rules still apply on the Sebastian beaches: the bag limit for marine life (tropical ornamental) species is 20 organisms per person per day, with no more than five of any one species.

Shark and ray teeth and invertebrate fossils found near Sebastian need no permit, but other vertebrate fossils taken from state land or state waters require a Florida Fossil Permit from the Florida Museum of Natural History.

Ownership is set by statute. Section 1004.57, Florida Statutes declares that all vertebrate fossils found on state-owned lands, including submerged lands and uplands, belong to the state, with title vested in the Florida Museum of Natural History. Offshore of the Sebastian beaches, the Florida Museum says the sea floor from the shoreline to three nautical miles offshore is the property of the state, and a fossil permit is required to collect vertebrate fossils there.

The exclusions cover most of what turns up in the Sebastian shell line. According to the Florida Museum, fossil shark and ray teeth are specifically excluded from these regulations, as are fossils of plants and invertebrate animals such as mollusks, sea urchins and crabs. A permit is required for every other kind of vertebrate fossil: fish other than shark and ray teeth, amphibians, reptiles, birds and non-human mammals.

The permit is inexpensive and comes with a duty to report. The Florida Fossil Permit program says permits will continue to cost $5 per year, a fee written into a 40-year-old statute, and that only about 1% of reported fossils are requested by the museum. The Florida Geological Survey states that all vertebrate fossil finds must be reported to the Florida Museum of Natural History, and that petrified wood, shells and echinoids found on the surface of state lands outside parks and refuges may be collected without a permit. None of this applies inside Sebastian Inlet State Park or on Archie Carr refuge land, where collecting fossils is not allowed.

County land is a separate case. The Florida Museum FAQ says people collecting on land belonging to a county or municipality do not need the state permit and should check local laws. No Indian River County rule on fossil collecting at its beach parks was found for this page, so the county park office at Golden Sands or Treasure Shores is the place to ask. Fossil and mineral pieces from outside the Sebastian beaches are listed in the science collectibles collection on Digital Towns Market. Digital Towns Market is our marketplace.

On land owned by the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge near Sebastian, federal rules prohibit removing any natural object, which includes shells.

The refuge rule is short. Under 50 CFR 27.61, the destruction, injury, defacement, disturbance or unauthorized removal of any public property including natural objects on or from any national wildlife refuge is prohibited. The complication on the Indian River County shore is ownership. Indian River County notes that it owns or shares ownership of 97 acres within the Archie Carr and Pelican Island refuges, and that public access runs through county parks such as Treasure Shores and Golden Sands, so a given patch of sand inside the refuge boundary may belong to the county, the state or the federal government.

The refuge exists for sea turtles, and that shapes when the beach is busy at night. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports that within the refuge's 20.5 miles of beach, loggerheads produce between 8,000 and 20,000 nests a year, and that May through August are the peak months for sea turtle nesting activity. Shell collecting along the Sebastian beaches in those months shares the sand with marked nests, which the refuge and county protect.

A 1715 Fleet coin or artifact found on state land or in state waters off Sebastian belongs to the State of Florida, not to the person who picks it up.

Section 267.061, Florida Statutes declares that treasure trove, artifacts and objects of historical or archaeological value abandoned on state-owned lands or sovereignty submerged lands belong to the state, with title vested in the Division of Historical Resources. Coins and artifacts from the 1715 Fleet fall squarely in that category when found on state land or below the high water line off Sebastian, which is why the McLarty Museum at Sebastian Inlet State Park is the place to see them. Shells, sea glass and shark teeth sit outside that law; a silver coin in the same shell line does not.