{"id":426327,"date":"2026-10-13T06:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T06:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/426327\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T06:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T06:40:10","slug":"sanibel-shellers-scoring-big-after-isaias-stirs-the-gulf-lee-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/426327\/","title":{"rendered":"Sanibel shellers scoring big after Isaias stirs the Gulf | Lee County"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SANIBEL, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 Hurricane Isaias stirred up the Gulf, and now shellers on Sanibel are finding remarkable treasures washing up on the beach.<\/p>\n<p>On Sanibel Island, the best treasures aren&#8217;t buried \u2014 they&#8217;re washing right up on shore. Susan Blaisdell wasn&#8217;t about to miss out.<\/p>\n<p>SEE ALSO:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.winknews.com\/news\/wink_stop\/keylime-bistro-hopes-to-bring-more-people-to-boca-grande\/article_73755dd9-79be-4629-a227-a31d8094466d.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Keylime Bistro hopes to bring more people to Boca Grande<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This morning I got up at five, and I thought, you know what, I just got in my car, and I got here, and right away I just started finding them,&#8221; Blaisdell said.<\/p>\n<p>She has the bucket to prove it. After Hurricane Isaias moved north through the Gulf, shellers flocked to social media to share their incredible finds.<\/p>\n<p>Storms can stir up shells offshore, pushing them toward the beach. For Julie Bergan, that was reason enough to make the trip.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I have such a big collection at home that I&#8217;m really picky about the good ones that I wanted to take home,&#8221; Bergan said. &#8220;But I also, as a hobby, I paint shells. So if I see some, I get them for painting.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>She turns her finds into little works of art, often giving them away to strangers. While Bergan is still searching for the one special shell, Blaisdell says there&#8217;s something about being out here that keeps her coming back.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When you&#8217;re doing this, it&#8217;s just like there&#8217;s no one else in the world,&#8221; Blaisdell said.<\/p>\n<p>But as these shells wash ashore, Blaisdell is also thinking about the communities hurt by the storm. She remembers what it was like when Hurricane Ian hit Southwest Florida.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you&#8217;re able to help, help, because Lord knows that when Ian hit, we had so much help here,&#8221; Blaisdell said.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s easy to see why so many people love shelling on Sanibel. You never know what the next wave might bring in or what you&#8217;ll find right beneath your feet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SANIBEL, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 Hurricane Isaias stirred up the Gulf, and now shellers on Sanibel are finding remarkable&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,28,157982,1694,166170,167648,15471,24186,6097,1521,167647],"class_list":["post-426327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-florida","tag-geography-of-florida","tag-ian","tag-isaias","tag-julie-bergan","tag-sanibel","tag-sanibel-island","tag-social-media","tag-southwest-florida","tag-susan-blaisdell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}