Egg Cases

Walking along the beach you might stumble across a string of flat, rounded capsules. These are knobbed whelk egg cases. Capsules are about an inch in diameter, and are made of material that looks and feels like thin, but durable, parchment. Most strands have 50-150 capsules, and each capsule contains up to 100 tiny (2mm-4mm) whelks.

I picked up this 8-capsule segment a few days ago. I cut the capsules open but there were no miniature whelks inside.

Whelk Egg Cases

Sometimes these egg cases are called Mermaid's Necklaces.

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is the story of the Civil War on the Outer Banks, Josephus Daniels, Jr, Secretary of the Navy during WWI, and his connection to Ocracoke. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news022112.htm.