The shell is a Spengleri’s Trumpet. Photo: Hailey Walter.
Hailey Walter collects seashells.
“I’ve very strictly limited them to one cabinet to display them, otherwise they’d easily take over my house,” she says.
So when her nine-year-old son spent some time at Jervis Bay with his grandparents, he gathered together a small bucket of about 30 shells to bring back for his mum.
Lovely. Until, when rifling through the haul, Hailey noticed one moving.
“We have a very strict rule in this house that we only collect shells, never live specimens … so when I found this little guy, I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to just let the little thing rot, and I don’t just want to put it in the bin.”
Some Googling later, the stay-at-home mum discovered the wriggling thing was a ‘Spengleri’s Trumpet’, a large predatory sea snail (sometimes called a predatory whelk) common to beaches all over Australia and New Zealand. It inherits its name from the 1700s Danish naturalist Lorenz Spengler, who did a lot of work on molluscs and mussels.
Hailey’s next port of call was ACT Wildlife, which admitted it was a first.
“We’ve never had anyone call about a sea creature in Canberra before,” they told her.
ACT Wildlife consulted with their peers in Jervis Bay, who then recommended “it’s always best to release it back into the area where it came from”.
“So that’s what I’m trying to do now,” Hailey says.
Hailey Walter’s shell collection. Photo: Hailey Walter.
Hailey shared a post to the Canberra Notice Board Group on Facebook earlier this week with what she described as the “world’s weirdest request”.
“If you’re making the trip north and wouldn’t mind playing chauffeur to a salty little hitchhiker, please let me know,” she wrote.
“I promise he’s quiet, low-maintenance, and won’t eat much (unless you’re a starfish).”
The post received more than 700 reactions and more than 60 comments from locals offering to run “missions of mercy” or praising her for “being so caring”.
Hailey says she has at least six people willing to take the snail on their back seat (inside its container) and return it to Jervis Bay waters within the coming days.
Close-ups of just some of Hailey’s shells. Photo: Hailey Walter.
For now, the snail has been living in a “shallow pool of filtered water with a bit of iodised salt in it”, as per the recommendations of ACT Wildlife.
“But he’s curled up in his shell and hasn’t come out, so obviously he doesn’t like the water.”
Hailey says the fascination with seashells started years ago when she was collecting minerals and fossils and stumbled across videos from a seashell collector on YouTube.
“I’m like, that’s quite beautiful, and that’s what led me down the path of collecting seashells, too.”
She estimates she has well over 100 now from all over the world.
“There’s a huge shelling community in Australia, of people who collect from all over the world, and we trade and swap with each other, and there are shell shows, conventions and clubs.”
As long as the specimens are dead and dried, Hailey says there are no issues getting them over state or international borders, although trade laws restrict some species.
Nautilus shells, for instance, are listed in an international trade agreement called the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), due to overfishing concerns.
The Golden Cowry, the shell Hailey really wants to add to her collection. Photo: H Zell, Wikimedia Commons.
For shell-collecting, Hailey’s go-to spot is Newcastle.
“There are some really unique beaches there where you’re allowed to take shells. But you’ve got to be really careful because there are lots of beaches in Australia that are no-take zones. I normally give the beach a quick Google before I visit to make sure, and normally, if you see people fishing, it’s fine.”
One shell she’s longing to add to the collection is the Golden Cowry, a rare species of sea snail limited to island reefs in central and southern parts of the Pacific Ocean. The shells are typically 80 to 100 mm long, and – as the name implies – mostly gold coloured and white to cream-coloured on the edges.
“It’s just such a very smooth shell, and they’re quite hard to find.”
