Guy Picks Up an Incredible Sea Shell From The Red Sea — But Many Think He's Lucky To Be Alive

Oceans are nature's beauties best left untouched, especially the shores. The shores, dusted in powdery Sun-baked sand, are often dotted with dry dunes, rocky cliffs, and clusters of pebbles slick with sea moss that glistens. The scene, so pristine and virgin, is, at most times, vulnerable to becoming scathed as curious humans dig their hands into the spatterings of seashells that line the shores and prevent them from erosion, as per Scubalov.  A man named Frank (u/AArdvarkPaws) was once snorkeling in Egypt’s Red Sea when he picked up a seashell and brought it home intending to keep it as a souvenir. Little did he know that the shell wasn’t just dead calcium. 

To Frank's shock, the shell he collected from the shore came to life. “How lucky I am to be still alive,” Frank wrote in the caption of the Reddit post and also shared a photograph of his hand holding a little object that resembles a seashell. “This is a picture from an underwater GoPro taken a while ago. I thought I just found a very pretty seashell and was thinking about taking it home as a souvenir, but I noticed it's still alive, feeling some weight and movement inside, so I decided to at least take some pictures of it. Only months later I was told handling it like this might have been a very bad idea,” the Reddit user described in a comment.

Amassing nearly 5,000 upvotes, Frank’s post spurred a flurry of cautionary advice from people in the comments section. “Isn’t that a textile cone snail? Bro casually picks up one of the most dangerous creatures on the planet and asks how lucky they are. Wild,” commented u/heyitsspidey. Many were quick to recognize that the deceptive shell in the picture was actually a “cone snail,” one of the most venomous snails in the world. People advised the snorkeler to avoid picking up things from the seashore. “If it's a cone, leave it alone,” said u/Admirable_Army8911. “Don’t touch anything,” wrote u/mintgreen. u/Even-Afternoon2485 said, “You’re lucky and you’re also foolish.”

Dr. Nyssa Silbiger, an associate director at the Uehiro Center for the Advancement of Oceanography, told Newsweek that what Frank’s photo showed, looked like a “cone snail” indeed. However, she couldn’t say for sure whether the snail was alive within the shell or not. "Cone snails are very venomous and dangerous to humans. They should be left alone, but so should all wildlife,” she explained.

According to Ocean Conservatory, “cone snails,” though colorful and intriguing, are “among the most venomous creatures on Earth.” Their harpoon-like teeth inject a toxic venom that can instantly paralyze the sea fish, worms, or humans, upon whose dead bodies these snails feast. Despite their deadly reputation, Frank said he had never heard of cone snails before he held one during this trip at the beach. Heard or not, these mystery-carrying seashells on the shores call for being left alone. Echoing this warning, a Reddit user, u/twojitsu, said, “Love letter from a diver in Australia: please never touch things in the ocean if you don’t know if it’ll kill you or not, thanks.”