ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla — "I’m a shell collector. I’ve been collecting shells for 20 years since I’ve been here," Kevin Askew said. He lives in Vilano Beach.
Vilano Beach is the place where the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is working on a beach restoration project. Extra sand on the beach could thwart beach erosion and keep the surf from lapping over A1A.
During the project, sand is dredged from the ocean floor, seven miles out. It's pumped through pipes to the beach, and then that sand is spread over the beach.
Last week, Eskew saw something he’s never seen during this process.
He shot video of it.
He said a Bobcat -- or a similar kind of machinery -- scraped the newly placed sand on the beach, picking up shells and sand. Those shells and sand were then loaded into a large, yellow, screened box. Eskew said that yellow, screened box was then taken a few feet into the surf and its contents were rinsed. He says the shells were then dumped into dumpsters.
Eskew said a days later, he saw identical dumpsters in a nearby public parking lot on Euclid Avenue off of A1A . Intrigued, he checked them out.
"I saw bins and bins of shells," he said.
And to his horror, "and I saw live creatures, still alive."
Eskew said some of the shells still had the live snails or animals in them.
Wednesday, he showed First Coast News some of the shells he retrieved from the dumpsters. He held what he said was a fighting conch in his hand. "There were a lot of these (fighting conchs) that were still alive in the dumpster. I did save about a half dozen of these, and I put them in the water here and they ran off."
Over the last few days, other locals have told First Coast News the same story about finding dumpsters loaded with shells along with live creatures in them. All the people who told First Coast News this story said the shells were from the beach nourishment project.
Wednesday, when First Coast News visited the parking lot with the dumpsters, there were NO TRESSPASSING signs posted at the lot. Neighbors said those signs are new. Eskew and others said the signs were not there when they peeked into the dumpsters days ago.
Cathy Aissen lives in Vilano Beach. She said, "I went over and I looked in (the dumpsters) and they were all shells. Dead and alive and they were starting to stink. I thought, 'this isn’t right.'"
A St. Johns County engineer told First Coast News there are precautions taken for protecting sea turtles, but he didn’t know what’s in place to protect invertebrates such as animals that live in shells. He suggested speaking to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
First Coast News reached out to the US Army Corps of Engineers, but we have not heard back.
Aissen contacted the county with her concerns. Wednesday she received an email from Joe Giammanco, St. Johns County's Emergency Management Director. It said, "The Army Corps contract and FDEP permit require the contractor to screen out any object larger than ¾ of an inch. This is to ensure the quality of the material being placed on the beach and screen out any debris like rocks, broken glass, or metal objects. This also means shells larger than ¾ of an inch are removed from the fill material which might have some shells with live animals. We are in contact with the Corps and the contractor to ensure permit compliance."
Meanwhile, Eskew and other concerned neighbors are worried what is happening to the ocean floor if they’re finding live animals who are dying in large dumpsters.
"Oh it makes me want to cry. Seems like it should be an illegal event," Aissen said.
Eskew said, "I’d like to see this process changed somehow, someway."