A cruising beachcomber's look at sea beans

I don't know much about sea beans, although I am expanding my knowledge just a tiny bit at a time.  I am, however, surprised at the boaters that I meet that don't know what I'm talking about when I say "sea bean."  So here is a non-intellectual post for the mildly interested who like picking up cool small objects as they walk the beaches.

What are sea beans? 

Really cool seeds that float, have a hard shell, like a piece of wood, and can sit dormant for years.  They come from a variety of plants, so there are bunches of different looking kinds.  There are sea bean identification books, just like there are bird identification books... and there are people with the same zeal for collecting them as some bird-watchers develop.

I'm into sea beans with about the degree of sophistication that I'm into birds. I can identify a few, but mainly get my joy in just exploring and finding the sea beans. and just watching and listening to the birds. 

Here are a couple of different sea beans that I've picked up over the last few months.  A sea pearl, a hamburger bean, a heart bean....

Nickerbean tree

Where do sea beans come from?  There are numbers of tropical trees, and bushes that produce these seeds.  This is a nickerbean tree miles from the coast, in an area surrounded by mangrove creeks.  This particular tree is on ground several feet above sea level, and 150' from the nearest water.  The seeds could sit under this tree until the next flood from a hurricane to begin their journey.  Scott, a sea bean guru, told me that these seeds may sit dormant for 40 years.  I've never seen a sea bean that was sprouting, but hey, what do I know.  I've also never planted one, and after hearing the "may sit dormant for 40 years" thing, have no intentions of doing so.

This is the only occasion I have ever rooted around for sea beans, but rooted through the dried leaves and found some sea pearls.

Sea Pearls

I grabbed these seed pods off a nickerbean tree overhanging a mangrove creek, where, when they pop open, they would fall into the water, beginning their journey a little quicker than the tree I was digging through the leaves under.  Each of these pods had a couple of "sea pearls" in them.

Where do I find sea beans?  Along the islands and mangrove creeks of the tropics, the seeds eventually end up floating, and they can end up almost anywhere at the whim of the currents.  The sea beans drift up on many of the sandy beaches I like to walk in the Bahamas.  They also collect in the porous rock holes along the coasts, where they get pushed up with the waves, and then caught in the holes as the water rushes away.  I've found sea beans along the top of a porous rock face that was ten feet above high water, where they had been airborne in surge hitting the rock.

What do I do with sea beans?  Years ago, when someone showed me my first one in the Tortugas, they gave it to me with these words:  If you find a sea bean, you find luck, but if you give it away you find a friend.  I pick up the ones I can find, clean them up a little, keep a few of each kind, and give some away.  A lot of folks carry one in their pocket for luck.  I carry one in my pocket sometimes to have one ready to find a friend.  In the Bahamas, I've seen them being sold as tinkets, as well as being fashioned into jewelry.  (I may make a necklace one day...)