A thousand miles north of Puerto Rico a winter storm with hurricane force winds churned across the Atlantic. Conditions combined to send massive swells radiating for hundreds of miles, sending massive waves crashing on Puerto Rico's northern shores. I've never seen anything lilke it!
    My favorite snorkeling/shelling spot is the west lagoon of Dorado Beach. Protected by a massive wall of rocks laid down by Laurence Rockefeller 50 years ago, the shallow waters usually show barely a ripple. The current can whip through as the tide recedes, but that's about it.
    This week the waves covered the rock wall and crashed on the beach! In fact, in the east lagoon the waves cleared sand and took the beach down about five feet, exposing more protective boulders!
    The upside of all this activity is that more seashells are starting to appear on the beach. There are the usual suspects: nerites, olives, limpets and trivias, but also cowries, tuns, purpura, a couple of wentletraps, tellins (which I normally have to snorkel to find) and some I haven't yet identified. One gorgeous olive-shaped shell of dark brown with two lighter bands doesn't appear in my Audubon field guide. I wish I could post a photo!
    I'm off to the beach in few minutes to see what washed up overnight.