10 things to look for when beachcombing in South Australia

10 things to look for when beachcombing in South Australia



Beach­comb­ing is a great way to get to know your local beach. Check out our guide to see what you could find.


Look­ing at what the sea has washed ashore is a fun and edu­ca­tion­al activ­i­ty for adults and chil­dren alike.

There are lots of inter­est­ing things to look out for no mat­ter where your local beach is. Shells, shark egg cas­es, bones, sea­weed, corals and oth­er sea life can all be found along South Australia’s beach­es, along with inter­est­ing rocks, pieces of smooth sea glass and driftwood.

But remem­ber – while you can look and take pho­tos of ani­mals and plants, it is ille­gal to remove any ani­mals or plants from rocky reefs in SA (from high tide down to 2 m).

It’s fine to take home a few of the emp­ty shells that you find washed up on the beach – but just make sure they are real­ly empty.

Here are 10 things to look for on your next beach­comb­ing adventure: 

1. Port Jack­son shark egg cases

These brown, spi­ral-shaped egg cas­es are quite dis­tinc­tive. Female Port Jack­son sharks wedge them into gaps between rocks, where they hard­en and can stay for up to a year before the baby shark hatch­es. Some­times they are dis­lodged by storms and end up on the beach. They range in size from 5 to 15 cm long. 

10 things to look for when beachcombing in South Australia

2. Moon snail sacks

Com­mon­ly known as sausage blub­bers’ or jel­ly blub­bers’, these clear, c‑shaped jel­lies are actu­al­ly mass­es of moon snail eggs. The adult moon snail is a small brown and fawn snail that hunts in inter­tidal areas for lit­tle bivalve creatures.

10 things to look for when beachcombing in South Australia

3. Abalone shells

Abalone have one flat­tish shell with a row of holes along one side to help them breathe. Rough on the out­side, they’re pearly and beau­ti­ful inside, and when they’re alive they clamp onto rocks using a mus­cu­lar foot.

10 things to look for when beachcombing in South Australia

4. Razor­fish

Razor­fish are a bivalve, mean­ing they have two shells instead of one. They can live for 15 years and grow up to half a metre long. They live in groups in sandy or mud­dy sed­i­ments, and true to their name, the edges of their shells can be very sharp if you step on them.

10 things to look for when beachcombing in South Australia

5. Anemone cones

Anemone cones are cone shells, mea­sur­ing up to about 5 cm long, that are found all around the SA coast. They are preda­to­ry mol­luscs that use a minia­ture poi­son dart to paral­yse and catch worms on the seafloor. The live snail could give a per­son a painful sting, but the emp­ty shell is not dangerous.

10 things to look for when beachcombing in South Australia

6. Cut­tle­fish bones

Any­one who has had a pet budgie is prob­a­bly famil­iar with cut­tle­fish bones, as they are tra­di­tion­al­ly giv­en to caged birds to sharp­en their beaks. Cut­tle­fish come from the same order as octo­pus and squid. They are soft-bod­ied crea­tures with 8 arms and 2 long ten­ta­cles to catch food, and the white bone’ is actu­al­ly an inter­nal shell that helps them float.

10 things to look for when beachcombing in South Australia

7. Tape­weed fibre ball

When Tape­weed, a type of sea­grass, breaks down in the sea the fibres can roll togeth­er in the waves to form balls. They’re like cat fur-balls of the sea! In some areas they can be as big as soc­cer balls.

10 things to look for when beachcombing in South Australia

8. Sponges

Sponges may look like plants, but they are actu­al­ly sim­ple ani­mals with a skele­ton made from a fibrous mate­r­i­al called spon­gin. They come in many shapes and sizes, and extract food by pump­ing sea water through their pores.

10 things to look for when beachcombing in South Australia

9. Sea urchins

Sea urchins are spiky lit­tle crea­tures with sharp teeth for eat­ing algae, and tiny feet to move around. They are usu­al­ly found on reefs or sea­grass, but if they are washed ashore, their spines are usu­al­ly bro­ken off along the way. The round­ed shell that is left behind is known as a test’.

10 things to look for when beachcombing in South Australia

10. Surf crabs

Also known as sand crabs, surf crabs are a grey­ish colour and grow to about 10 cm across, with 2 red dots on their shells that look like eyes. As they grow, they dis­card their old shells and grow new ones, so emp­ty shells often wash up on the beach.

10 things to look for when beachcombing in South Australia

Check out the Beach Explorer’s Guide to Plants and Ani­mals in South Aus­tralia to learn more about these and oth­er inter­est­ing things you can find along our beaches.

Found any­thing inter­est­ing in your trav­els? Be sure to share your expe­ri­ence with us in the com­ments sec­tion below.

This sto­ry was orig­i­nal­ly post­ed in Sep­tem­ber 2016 and has been updat­ed with extra information. 


This con­tent was pro­duced in part­ner­ship with  Good Living