Lee County is a county located in southwestern Florida, United States, on the Gulf Coast. As of the 2020 census, its population was 760,822. In 2022, the population was 822,453, making it the eighth-most populous county in the state. The county seat is Fort Myers, with a population of 86,395 as of the 2020 census, and the largest city is Cape Coral, with an estimated 2020 population of 194,016.
A seashell or sea shell, also known simply as a shell, is a hard, protective outer layer usually created by an animal or organism that lives in the sea. Most seashells are made by mollusks, such as snails, clams, and oysters to protect their soft insides. Empty seashells are often found washed up on beaches by beachcombers. The shells are empty because the animal has died and the soft parts have decomposed or been eaten by another organism.
Captiva is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Lee County, Florida, United States. It is located on Captiva Island. As of the 2020 census, the population was 318, down from 583 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Sanibel is an island and city in Lee County, Florida, United States. The population was 6,382 at the 2020 census, down from 6,469 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. The island, also known as Sanibel Island, constitutes the entire city. It is a barrier island—a collection of sand on the leeward side of the more solid coral-rock of Pine Island.
Conchology is the study of mollusc shells. Conchology is one aspect of malacology, the study of molluscs; however, malacology is the study of molluscs as whole organisms, whereas conchology is confined to the study of their shells. It includes the study of land and freshwater mollusc shells as well as seashells and extends to the study of a gastropod's operculum.
Pine Island is the largest island on the Gulf Coast of peninsular Florida in the United States. Located in Lee County, on the Gulf of Mexico coast of southwest Florida, it is also the 118th largest island in the United States. The Intracoastal Waterway passes through Pine Island Sound, to the west of the island. Matlacha Pass runs between Pine Island and the mainland. Pine Island lies west of Cape Coral. For many years, Pine Island was a major commercial fishing community and many of its full-time residents still fish commercially today.
Pine Island Sound is located in Lee County, Florida, lying between Pine Island and the barrier islands of Sanibel Island, Captiva Island, North Captiva Island and Cayo Costa, which separate the Sound from the Gulf of Mexico. The Sound connects to Gasparilla Sound and Charlotte Harbor to the north, and to San Carlos Bay and the Caloosahatchee River to the south. The Sound is conterminous with the Pine Island Sound Aquatic Preserve, which was established in 1970 and consists of 54,000 acres (220 km2) of submerged land. Important habitats in the Sound include mangroves, seagrasses, salt marshes, oyster communities, tidal flats and sponge beds. All animals in and around Pine Island sound, including mollusks, fish, birds and mammals, are affected by periodic outbreaks of red tide. The Sound is relatively shallow in many locations, and boaters are cautioned to utilize up-to-date charts and tide tables.
The Sanibel Causeway is a causeway in Southwest Florida that spans San Carlos Bay, connecting Sanibel Island with the Florida mainland in Punta Rassa. The causeway consists of three separate two-lane bridge spans, and two-man-made causeway islands between them. The entire causeway facility is owned by Lee County and operated by the Lee County Department of Transportation (DOT). The causeway is 3 miles (5 km) long with a $6 toll for island-bound vehicles only.
Blind Pass is the strait that separates Captiva Island from Sanibel Island in Lee County, Florida.
Cayo Costa State Park is a state park in the U.S. state of Florida, on Cayo Costa, an island directly south of Boca Grande and just north of North Captiva Island, approximately 12 miles (19 km) west of Cape Coral. The park is accessible only by charter boat, private boat, ferry or helicopter.
The Scotch bonnet is a medium-sized to large species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the subfamily Cassinae, the helmet shells and bonnet shells. The common name "Scotch bonnet" alludes to the general outline and color pattern of the shell, which vaguely resemble a tam o' shanter, a traditional Scottish bonnet or cap. The shell is egg-shaped and fairly large, 2 to 4 inches in maximum dimension, with a regular pattern of yellow, orange or brown squarish spots. The surface sculpture of the shell is highly variable: the surface can be smooth and polished, have grooves, be granulated, or even be nodulose on the shoulder of the whorls.
Useppa Island is an island located near the northern end of Pine Island Sound in Lee County, Florida, United States. It has been known for luxury resorts since the late 19th century, and it is currently the home of the private Useppa Island Club. On May 21, 1996, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, due to its archaeological significance.
Sanibel Colored School, also known as Sanibel School, is a U.S. National Registered Historic school located in Sanibel, Florida. Starting all the way from 1914, schooling in Sanibel started from a Baptist church that James Johnson built on Sanibel Island. Thirteen years later, Johnson gave black families the opportunity to use the church for schooling for the children which later resulted in the Lee County Board of Public Instruction buying it for a little over $1,000. Schooling with them was a little bit different from regular schooling, because they only needed seven children in order to operate school with grades 1-8. With the population in Sanibel being 90 people, it was a little hard to keep up with the school because children were 9th-12th graders. A little after, it got to the point where the school had to close their doors. In the year of 1962, the Lee County School Board put the schools up for sale.
South Seas Island Resort is a 330-acre (1.3 km2) resort located on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico in the community of Captiva in Lee County, Florida. The original resort, South Seas Plantation, was opened in 1946 as a fishing resort by Clarence Chadwick, following a dry hurricane which ended commercial farming on the island. Chadwick owned much of Captiva and portions of nearby Sanibel, making his fortune inventing the Checkprinter in the 1920s. His heirs sold the property to Mariner Properties in 1966, which began the modern era of the resort. The original Plantation house, suffering from termites and wood rot, was demolished in the 1990s.
Robert Tucker Abbott was an American conchologist (seashells) and malacologist (molluscs). He was the author of more than 30 books on malacology, which have been translated into many languages.
North Captiva Island is an island in Lee County in Southwest Florida, located just offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. It lies just north of Captiva Island, separated by a channel called Redfish Pass which was created in a 1921 hurricane. It lies just south of Cayo Costa Island, separated by Captiva Pass.
Scaphella junonia, common names the junonia, or Juno's volute, is a species of large sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Volutidae, the volutes.
José H. Leal is a Brazilian-born malacologist and American citizen residing in the United States since 1984. Between 1996 and 2013 he was the executive director of the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum, in Sanibel Island, Florida, and he is currently the science director and curator of that museum.
Fulguropsis pyruloides is a species of Marine Gastropod, commonly known as the pear whelk. It is also known as the Florida pear whelk or Atlantic pear whelk in scientific and shelling circles to differentiate from the more well known Fulguropsis spirata, which is also known as the Pear Whelk. It was first described by American conchologist, Thomas Say, in 1822.
The Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation (SCCF) was founded in 1967 on Sanibel Island, Florida to preserve the island's interior freshwater system. The nonprofit's mission has since evolved to protect and care for Southwest Florida's coastal ecosystems.
