Sanibel Island

Most barrier islands run north-south. Sanibel runs east-west, and that quirk of orientation is why its beaches are buried in shells. The island sits sideways to the Gulf, backed by a shallow shelf that slopes out for miles. Together they work like a dustpan: currents sweeping up the coast hit Sanibel broadside and drop everything they are carrying. More than 250 species wash up here, and the bent-at-the-waist posture of a shell hunter has its own name, the Sanibel Stoop. Over half the island is protected as the J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge, which is why the interior reads as water and marsh on this board rather than streets. The curve you are looking at is the same one doing the scooping.