Live shells, sand dollars and starfish
The one rule that hardly varies: if it is alive, it stays. Two states make narrow exceptions, and they come with licenses and limits.
First, is anyone home?
Most trouble on the tide line starts with a shell that looked empty. The parks offer simple tests:
- Look inside. As South Carolina’s Myrtle Beach State Park puts it, a snail shell is alive if something is still in there.
- Check for tenants. Fire Island reminds visitors that snail shells are often taken over by a new owner — a hermit crab counts.
- Trust your nose. Cumberland Island’s advice: anything that smells like a dead animal goes back on the beach.
- Watch a sand dollar closely. A living one is covered in fine, moving spines and is usually dark; the bleached white disc people take home is the skeleton left behind.
Florida: a license, and two strict counties
Florida’s wildlife agency draws one line: does the shell contain a living organism? If it does, you need a Florida recreational saltwater fishing license to take it — even when you are collecting from shore.
- Lee County (Sanibel and Captiva): no shells containing a live organism may be taken or possessed, apart from oysters, hard clams, sunray venus clams and coquinas.
- Manatee County: no more than two shells containing live organisms of any single species per day — a count that includes sand dollars and starfish — with the same four exceptions.
- Queen conch: possessing a live queen conch is prohibited at any time. An empty queen conch shell may be kept, provided there was no living conch in it when you found it.
- Bahama starfish: all harvest is prohibited.
- Other marine life: the general bag limit is 20 organisms per person per day, with no more than five of any one species.
State and federal parks, national wildlife refuges and parts of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary may limit or prohibit collecting further.
Source: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission — Recreational sea shell collecting. As of October 2026.
Texas: fifteen snails, two of each large species
Texas treats live shells as part of its fishing regulations. A fishing license with a saltwater endorsement is required, and it is unlawful to take more than 15 live univalve snails in a day. Within that total, no more than two each may be lightning whelk — the state shell — horse conch, Florida fighting conch, pear whelk, banded tulip or Florida rocksnail.
One area has a closed season. At South Padre Island, in a zone on the bay and pass sides near Brazos Santiago Pass, taking shell-bearing mollusks, hermit crabs, starfish or sea urchins is prohibited from November 1 through April 30.
Source: Texas Parks and Wildlife — Other aquatic life regulations. As of October 2026.
Federal shores: never
On National Park Service land, living or dead wildlife may not be possessed or removed, and the shell exception covers unoccupied shells only. Olympic National Park says it plainly: all living organisms on the beach and in tide pools are protected, and picking up tide pool animals can harm or kill them. Padre Island asks visitors to put back any shell that still holds a living animal.
Tide pool manners
Washington State Parks sums up tide pool etiquette in three habits: walk only on bare rock, never remove or handle marine life, and leave rocks exactly as you find them — without turning them over, because the animals underneath depend on the shade and moisture.
Source: Washington State Parks — Beach exploration. As of October 2026.
For everything that is not alive — shells, sand, stones, wood — see the state-by-state table.