Waved whelks are medium sized, univalves with both axial and spiral ridges on their shell. When their soft body is exposed, it is white with black splotches. Two distinctive features of a whelk shell are an oval aperture and a siphonal notch. Waved whelks can be found along the Atlantic seaboard from the Arctic to New Jersey. They live subtidally to depths of about six hundred feet.
Whelks have a powerful muscular foot that glides on a film of mucus which they secrete.
Waved whelks are primarily scavengers feeding on dead or dying marine organisms. This file-like tongue is replaced as it is worn off. These snails grow rapidly to their adult size of two to four inches in length. These mollusks grow larger in the northern part of their range. Wastes are passed from the kidneys and intestines into the mantle cavity where they are washed out of the body.