NATURALIST'S 



NOTEBOOK 



TOP: Sea heart sea beans 

 BOTTOM: Sea Purse sea beans 



ball, that grows in threesomes in a knobby 

 capsule. Sea coconuts, sometimes still in their 

 peculiar-looking pods, and other sea beans float a 

 little higher than the seaweed. 



"A strong southwest wind in the summer 

 can bring in a treasure trove," he says. "If you 

 look above the weed line, you'll find them." 



While sea beans often ride in on a strong 

 wind or a storm tide, offshore conditions can 

 bring them on a calm day as well. Some 

 Floridians consider fall sea bean season — some 

 plants shed their seeds then, and hurricanes stir up 

 the waters. Because they can drift for months, 

 however, sea beans can appear year-round. 



LOOKOUT FOR SEA BEANS 



North Carolina's northernmost and 

 southernmost beaches both sometimes have sea 

 beans, according to the state aquariums at 

 Roanoke Island and Fort Fisher. By most 

 accounts, though, the currents are kindest to 

 collectors around Cape Lookout. The Gulf 

 Stream comes closest to our coast there, and its 

 dynamics make surrounding beaches the 

 destination for tropical tidbits. 



"The stream is really a strongly meandering 

 set of flows, with some meanders forming eddies 



TOP: Sea bean pod and seeds. 

 BOTTOM: Golf Ball sea beans. 



that spin away from the main axis of flow," says 

 Larry Cahoon, a North Carolina Sea Grant 

 researcher specializing in biological oceanography 

 at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. 



"The force of the stream also creates 

 counterclockwise-moving flows in the coastal 

 bays, such as Onslow Bay, the shelf waters 

 between Capes Lookout and Fear," Cahoon says. 

 "The Gulf Stream meanders that get entrained in 

 the counterclockwise flows in shelf waters carry 

 tropical water and flotsam inshore at Cape 

 Lookout, which is why we see lots of tropical 

 stuff in that area." 



Near Hatteras, the Gulf Stream veers away 

 from the coast, and conflicting currents tend to 

 push floating objects out to sea. But many 

 variables of wind and current can bring sea beans 

 and other surprises from far-flung shores onto the 

 beach almost anywhere. 



Even at Cape Lookout, sea beans are 

 something special. "You may find them once 

 during the season when winds are right or storms 

 are right or you just happen to be in the right 

 place," says Cape Lookout National Seashore 

 park ranger Karen Duggan. "They're wonderful 

 little reminders of things to the South. We just 

 don't get them often." 



FOR MORE INFORMATION: 



• www.seabean.com has sea bean background 

 and details on the Eighth Annual International 

 Sea Bean Symposium and Beachcombers' Festival, 

 Oct. 10-11, Cocoa Beach, Fla. 



• The Drifting Seed newsletter, P.O. Box 



51 0366, Melbourne, FL 32951 ; also available on 

 www.seabean.com 



• The Little Book of Sea-Beans and Other Beach 

 Treasures, Cathie Katz and Paul Mikkelsen, a pocket 

 guide available through the sea bean Web site. 



• World Guide to Tropical Drift Seeds and Fruits, 

 Charles R. Gunn and John V. Dennis, revised 

 edition, 1999, Krieger Publishing Co., P.O. Box 

 9542, Melbourne, FL, 32902-9542; phone: 

 321/724-9542; www.krieger-publishing.com. 



• Sea Beans from the Tropics, Edward L Perry 

 and John V. Dennis, 2003, Krieger Publishing Co., 

 P.O. Box 9542, Melbourne, FL, 32902-9542; 

 phone: 321/724-9542; www.krieger-publishing.com. 



A MESSAGE IN A BEAN 



Why sea beans travel so far from the 

 tropics, when they cannot survive cold climates, 

 is nature's secret. Perhaps the plants are 

 expanding their range by indiscriminately 

 sending seeds to sea, equipped for a long and 

 wet passage. Some float because of a light- 

 weight, fibrous coating; others have an air 

 pocket inside a casing so hard that early 

 Scandinavians thought sea beans were stones. 



Whatever their reasons for their long 

 journeys, sea beans continue to intrigue their 

 finders, just as they have for centuries. 



"Sea beans are among those things that 

 regularly — not ten times a week but at least a 

 few times a year — somebody will bring in and 

 say, 'What is this?' " says Bob Patron, education 

 curator at the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine 

 Knoll Shores. He himself has found a few 

 known sea beans, and a large, mysterious 

 seedpod he has not yet identified. 



A sea bean on the beach, he says, holds the 

 same sort of mystique as a message in a bottle. 



"You wonder how long has it been 

 out there," he says, "and where did it come 

 from?" □ 



COASTWATCH 25 



