{"id":82125,"date":"2025-12-13T12:43:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T12:43:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/82125\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T12:43:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T12:43:16","slug":"shell-museums-2026-classes-begin-dec-19-on-sanibel-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/82125\/","title":{"rendered":"Shell Museum\u2019s 2026 classes begin Dec. 19 on Sanibel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t Open Audio Article Player<\/a> \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n SPECIAL TO FLORIDA WEEKLY<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n

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COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n

The 2026 season classes presented by the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum & Aquarium begin on Dec. 19 with Marine Biology and Beach Field Lab at Sanibel\u2019s Gulfside City Park, led by Museum Marine Biologist Chris Whitt.\n<\/p>\n

This hands-on course covers finding and identifying micromollusks, collecting phytoplankton, invertebrate diversity, learning about the beach ecosystem and more. The course takes place during a negative tide, giving participants a higher probability of observing live mollusks.\n<\/p>\n

Future classes include:\n<\/p>\n

Jan. 9: Shell Ambassador Certification.
\nFeb. 2: Marine Biology and Beach Field Lab (repeat).
\nFeb. 24: Creating Sailors\u2019 Valentines.
\nMarch 13: Shell Ambassador Certification (repeat).
\nApril 7: Now You See Them, Now You Don\u2019t: Elusive Shells and What Makes Them Hard to Find.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom gaining first-hand knowledge of our beach ecosystems, to finding and identifying rare shells, to learning how to teach the public about shells, we hope this season\u2019s classes offer opportunities for people to build their knowledge and more deeply enjoy the nature of the islands and Southwest Florida,\u201d said National Shell Museum Executive Director Sam Ankerson.\n<\/p>\n

Learn more and register for all 2026 Season Classes at ShellMuseum.org\/learn-and-experience\/classes.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

About the Museum\n<\/p>\n

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The Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum & Aquarium. -COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n

The Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum is a natural history museum, and the only museum in the United States devoted primarily to shells and mollusks. Its mission is to use exceptional collections, aquariums, programs, experiences, and science to be the nation\u2019s leading museum in the conservation, preservation, interpretation, and celebration of shells, the mollusks that create them, and their ecosystems. Permanent exhibitions on view include the Great Hall of Shells which displays highlights of the Museum\u2019s collection of some 600,000 shells, as well as the Living Gallery of Aquariums and over 60 species of marine life. For more information, please visit ShellMuseum.org<\/a> or call (239) 395-2233<\/a>.\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open Audio Article Player SPECIAL TO FLORIDA WEEKLY COURTESY PHOTO The 2026 season classes presented by the Bailey-Matthews…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-82125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82125","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=82125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}