DATE: Friday, October 24, 1997              TAG: 9710240669

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MARY REID BARROW 

        STAFF WRITER  

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   49 lines

STORM-SOCKED SNAILS ROCKED FROM HOMES, WASH UP ON BEACHES

After the sea calmed this week following a northeaster, seawall construction workers at the North End have been astounded to discover thousands of dying and dead moon snails washing up on the beach.

The moon snails are the predominant casualty of the big, weekend blow in that area. Seawall construction was not damaged, said Michael E. Lane, construction quality control officer for S.B. Ballard Inc., builders of this seawall phase.

On Thursday, the moon snails, with some seastars, whelks, mussels and other shells mixed in, formed huge shell beds on the sand at low tide for as far as the eye could see north and south of the construction trailer site at 49th Street.

More moon snails were strewn along the high tide line. Lane said he had been working on the seawall for months and had yet to see anything like the number of shells now washing up.

Sometimes called shark eyes, moon snails are roundish, brownish snails with spiraled tops, growing up to 3 inches in diameter. They live in the intertidal and subtidal zones offshore in the ocean and in the Chesapeake Bay, said Chris Mast, an education specialist at the Virginia Marine Science Museum.

``They crawl around under the sand,'' Mast said, ``so the wave action was strong enough for a long enough time to dislodge them from the bottom. Also with the rough surf conditions, the waves were interacting with the bottom farther out than usual.''

The moon snail's most unusual feature is a huge foot that it extrudes from its shell to plow through the bottom.

Although the foot is so enormous that it can almost cover the exterior of the shell, it can be fully retracted again. The snails dine on other mollusks - like clams and mussels - drilling holes in their shells with a raspy, tongue-like appendage.

This time, however, the moon snails are proving to be a feast for gulls.

Hundreds of the birds gathered at low tide on the huge shell beds Thursday, squawking at one another as they feasted on the hapless critters washed up by the storm.

``It was a godsend for the birds,'' Lane said. ``There are some fat birds out there. They sit there and look at you. They can't even lift off the ground.'' ILLUSTRATION: MARY REID BARROW

Snails...

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