Beachcombing in Pennsylvania: What to expect

Freshwater mussels

Freshwater mussels

Beachcombing in Pennsylvania is not like beachcombing along the beaches along the Atlantic Coast.

Pennsylvanians have deposited sand at the sides of lakes, ponds and river across the state and labeled them beaches. But, are they really?

Lake Erie holds Pennsylvania’s only true beaches, most of which are in Presque Isle State Park at Erie.

The lake once was home to more than 3 dozen species of freshwater clams with names like mapleleaf, pimpleback and fatmucket, as well as a thriving pearl button industry. That was before heavy industry, agricultural runoff and sewage polluted the water, and the smothering invasion by the non-native zebra mussel.

As with all freshwater clam and mussel species everywhere, the variety and numbers of clams and mussels is greatly reduced today, as they are across all of Pennsylvania. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that 70 percent of North America’s freshwater mussels are extinct or endangered or nearly endangered.

Beach glass

Beach glass

Beach glass, similar to that found along oceanic shorelines, is today’s big draw for Lake Erie beachcombers.

Beach glass, which is the freshwater equivalent of sea grass, and sea grass are remnants of manmade glass that have been naturally tumbled, rounded and frosted by wave action. The result is something close to gemstones.

The original glass, mostly in the form of bottles and dishware, arrives in the water as trash or sometimes through shipwrecks, of which Lake Erie has seen more than 2,000.

Beach-glass beaches, both saltwater and freshwater, are combed regularly – increasingly as ever larger crowds vacation at beaches everywhere

Similar shards of polished glass show up along rivers and streams, where it’s generally known as river glass. While it’s less common than beach glass or sea glass, river glass carries the mystique that it may have originated in very old glass from original settlement along the waterway.

Freshwater mussels

Freshwater mussels

Shells are common along Pennsylvania waterways, although they are much less varied than at most seashore beaches. The rivers, streams, lakes and ponds of the state are home to about 50 species of freshwater mussel. Another 15 or so are believed extirpated from the state.

Collecting or harvesting live mussels is prohibited in Pennsylvania. In addition, the federal Endangered Species Act of 1973 prohibits possession of any part, including the shells, of any mussel listed as federally endangered.

Pennsylvania mussel species on the federal endangered species list are dwarf wedgemussel, fanshell, northern riffleshell, snuffbox, cracking pearlymussel, pink mucket, ring pink, orangefoot pimpleback, sheepnose, clubshell, rough pigtoe, rabbitsfoot and rayed bean.

Freshwater snail

Freshwater snail

Another group of shelled animals found in waterways across the state is the freshwater snail. A 2003-06 survey that collected 442 samples across the state found 63 species, ranging from the spiral-shelled slender walker to the rams-horned bugle sprite.

Caddisfly larva

Caddisfly larva in sheath it built of grains of sand and tiny pebbles.

Many of the cleanest streams in Pennsylvania also are home to the larvae of various species of caddisfly, which encase themselves in tubular sheaths made of grains of sand, tiny pebbles, tiny twigs and bits of leaves.

While Pennsylvania may not have the diversity of our neighbors along the Atlantic Coast, but there is plenty to comb along our beaches, shores and waterways.

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