Beachcombing: Sand Through My Fingers

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
William Blake - Auguries of Innocence

I’ve written about Beverly & Greg becoming psammophiles or sand collectors. The word psammophile can also be used to describe an animal that prefers to live in the sand ("sand loving"). I am sure that my two friends are truly missing the warm sandy beaches of Saipan so it is not too far fetched to call them as such. I’ve been collecting small samples of sand to send the two every time I beachcomb. So far I’ve about 13 samples and only missing samples from a few beaches on Saipan. Take a look at some of the samples:

HIDDEN BEACH

Hidden Beach is the northernmost Eastern beach on Saipan located in the village of Talofofo. It is a small pocket of a beach at the end of a stream. Most of the sand is composed of broken corals and shells.

SAN JUAN BEACH

DJ, TonTon & Laurina at San Juan Beach.

San Juan Beach is the most immediate beach south of Hidden Beach but the composition of the sand is quite different.

Look at it closely and you can see sizable silica crystals. Silicate rocks (SiO2, Silicon dioxide) like Quartz and Citrine, and carbonates like Calcite and Aragonite (CaCO3, Calcium carbonate) are quite abundant here to the delight of crystal hunters.


LAULAU BEACH
Black sand beaches on Saipan? Sure! I found a patch of black sand at LauLau Beach, Kagman close to where the dive cut is at. I’ve had the samples for more than 3 years thinking that they were mica (aluminum silicate). Mica usually forms in flakes but looking closely at the samples, the grains are clearly many sided.

I was using a dental scraper and noticed black sand grains clinging to the metallic tool! The sand was magnetic! The black sand in LauLau is magnetite after all: an iron oxide (FeFeO4). Magnetite is 72% iron and geologists have used their natural characteristic to align themselves to the North Pole to figure out the past movement of continents. This technique is called paleomagnetism.

There are also lots of silica crystals mixed in the Lau Lau sample as well. Sifting allows the lighter crystals to move to the top while the heavier magnetite to settle at the bottom.

Oooh! Crystals!

LADDER BEACH

Some Japanese islands are famous for their star sand and are marketed to the tourists that way. I noticed a star sand bloom a few weeks ago at Ladder Beach. Star sand are single-celled marine protozoans called foramineferans (forams for short). I often hear that there are more star sand at Long Beach, Tinian but I now believe that they are more common than we think on Saipan (I’ve seen them all over). All you need is a scrutinizing eye for their beige colored tests! Can you see the star sand? Look closer...

I'm pretty sure Bev & Greg will have nicer pics to share from their Leica cam!

COW TOWN BEACH

Go to Marpi Village, pass the landfill and follow the unpaved trail to Cow Town Beach. Here are my buddies Kevin & DJ from a few months ago. At low tide, you will see a patch beach that is full of star sand, broken corals, micro shells, and Marginopora to the left of the entrance.

I like to call the Marginopora, halo sand because of their disk shape. Marginopora like star sand are forams. Can you see the halo sand?

Here they are...

Okay! If all that talk about sand was boring to you, here is a cute picture of Hayden Lucas to make up. He is becoming quite a beachcomber and psammophile himself!

CRAB CARAPACE

I picked up a pretty crab head of what looks like a Carpilius convexus (Forskal, 1775) also known as the Variable Coral Crab. It belongs to the Xanthidae Family also known as the Coral crabs or Dark-fingered crabs.

Many Xanthids are poisonous. Sadly, I hear that they are eaten in some Micronesian islands to commit suicide.

STARFISH

I was surprised to see starfish in the shallow Saipan Lagoon. When I first saw one, I thought it accidental or misplaced. Then I found more. These are Linckia multifora (Lamark, 1816) or Spotted Linckia seastars. I often find them living in coral reefs rather than on sandy lagoons with sea grass. They are related to the much bigger and better known Blue Sea Star, Linckia laevigata (L, 1758). These stars have the habit of discarding an arm that often regenerates into a whole new sea star! Of course, we returned these animals to their respective spots unharmed with all their arms still intact.

Well, that was just a little story I wanted to share before I go to bed. I hope you enjoyed it and lets talk stories again soon. Take care and stay safe.

Ti napu.

The Beachcomber

Beachcombing

I didn't plan on doing some beach combing the other day and it was a pleasant surprise that the excursion turned up some real good specimens for my shell collection. I was sorting, cleaning, bagging and tagging my specimens when I realized that I have never posted an actual beach combing blog. How funny is that? Anyway, this is what your Beachcomber does when he can in his free time: beachcomb for shells for a biodiversity working collection.

You can get a permit at CNMI Division of Fish & Wildlife if you want a shell collection. Also remember that the wildlife and natural resources of this world have been entrusted to us for protection and preservation. We all must account to the future for how we handle resources today and if you decide to collect shells it must be done lawfully, conservatively, recognizing that destruction of the marine habitat, by whatever means, is the true enemy of the sea and its creatures. You can read and take the Sheller's Creed.

Abalones (Family Haliotidae) get quite big in colder waters, but in the Marianas they are quite small. Their modest size do not detract from the beauty of these shells though as you can see from the nacre or mother of pearl in the opening where the animal used to live. These are Haliotis clathrata, common name Lovely abalones (Reeve, 1846) and you can find them between 10-60 mm in size.
Here are two samples that are new to me! Part of the dream of all beachcombers is to discover something new and undescribed and be able to name it yourself! Well, my best friend actually found the one that looks like a sundial (most likely of the Architectonicidae family) so she will have to name it! I will have to check if it is Heliacus caelatus as described by Hinds (1844). Here are new limpets to my collection that have a nice yellow tint to them. These gastropods or marine snails are usually found attached to rocks with the exposed surface covered in encrustations. When the animal dies the shell gets polished by the water, sand and waves and they show off wonderful architecture and amazing patterns of color. They're in the Patellidae family.

Found some cool spines of Eucidaris metularia (Lamarck, 1816), the Ten-lined sea urchin. Although I have never seen them in the water, their spines are a pretty good clue that they are around!

Another candlenut or kukui (Aleurites moluccana). I still haven't found a live tree on Guam and the CNMI! Could the seed have traveled the seas from Polynesia? Or from Malaysia or Indonesia? It's possible but I am still crossing my fingers that there are trees here.
I found some Star sand and what I call Halo sand. They are foraminaferans (or forams for short) which are actually marine protists that are big enough to see with the naked eye. The circular Halo sand are Marginopora vertebralis, calcareous and they contribute to the sand makeup when they die.

Some Japanese islands are famous and are marketed to tourists for their star sand. We should too since they are pretty abundant in a lot of our beaches. Read about the star sand legend here. I'll be sending some samples to Bev and Greg since the two have become psammophiles (sand collectors). They are putting together a nice Leica camera and and an old microscope together. I hope I can send them some of my microshell collection to photograph as well that I can show you.

Thank you for letting me share again.

Ti napu.

The Beachcomber