Of course, from a scientific point of view, this place is not a real island, but this is how the locals and travelers call it. We are talking about a gigantic cluster of empty mollusk shells dumped into the ocean by fishermen for more than eight centuries.
Shell Island (this name has long been stuck with it) is located east of Anegada - the northernmost of the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean, which is a dependent territory of the United Kingdom. The island of shells is not only an amazing tourist attraction, but also a clear testament to how important shellfish meat plays in the diet of peoples living in the Caribbean.
Since at least the 13th century, local fishermen have been diving in the shallow waters of the Caribbean, catching edible invertebrates at the bottom and throwing out unwanted shells in the same place. As a result, millions of these shells have accumulated here, capturing the attention of numerous travelers.
Soft-bodied ones are mined today not only for the sake of meat, beautiful shells are also used as souvenirs. This leads to a logical question: why should not the buyers of such souvenirs simply collect them on this unique "island"? It turns out that not everything is so simple. To quickly extract the meat, the shells are spoiled by making a hole in each and taking out the clam with a special hook. However, to get a whole shell, it must be immersed in fresh water and wait until the invertebrate crawls out on its own. This is how shells are prepared for souvenirs.
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Thus, the Island of Shells does not look as attractive near as it does from afar, since it consists, in fact, of shell fragments. By the way, if you ever go for a walk on this man-made "piece of sushi", you will need shoes with thick soles, otherwise you risk injuring your feet.
The island of shells is clearly visible even on satellite images. Alas, this unique “graveyard of shellfish remains” is also a wonderful reminder of man's exorbitant appetites. If 800 years ago the Arawak Indians hunted invertebrates in very modest quantities, today the local fishermen have set the fishing for soft-bodied on a wide stream, and the area of the "island" is noticeably increasing every year. And that has made, unfortunately, the edible shellfish in the Caribbean an endangered species of marine life.