Serious beachcombing means getting your feet wet and watching your back. The constantly churning waters of the Pacific coast ensure that one of your most common finds will be bits and pieces of shells. These shards of mussels, clams and sand dollars are nature's own recycling effort to return vital nutrients to the ocean. These shell fragments are often left in deposits from receding waves. Sand dollars, scallops and limpets can often be found as small as a dime.
Sand dollars are a common beach find along the sandy shores of the northwest Pacific coast.
The sand dollar is a member of the sea urchin family and can be more than three inches across or smaller than a dime. The gray or white sand dollar found on the beach is the skeleton of this unique sea creature. Many shells on the beach come from shellfish such as mussels, clams and scallops. Mussel shells are oblong and a rough bluish black or brown on the outside. The inside of the shell is smooth with blue and silver-white markings.