Ocracoke: Second-best beach for shells

North Carolina's Ocracoke Island has been named the second-best beach for shells, by Coastal Living magazine.

No. 1 on the top 10 list is Florida's Sanibel Island.

"The rare Scotch bonnet, state shell of North Carolina, sometimes turns up [on Ocracoke's beach]," writes the magaziine. "Even during the frenetic summer season, few tourists venture outside Ocracoke Village at the south end of this 16-mile-long Outer Banks island. In winter, when restless weather stirs up all sorts of treasures from the deep, only the gulls are likely to share the northern beaches. Stephen 'Dr. Beach' Leatherman ranked Ocracoke third on his 2006 'top beaches' list. ..."

Behind Ocracoke are beaches in Bandon, Ore.; Galveston, Texas; Tunnels Beach, Kauai, Hawaii; Flag Ponds Nature Park, Lusby, Md.; Cumberland Island National Seashore, Ga.; Eleuthera Island, The Bahamas; Great Peconic Bay, Long Island, N.Y.; and Stinson Beach, Calif.