Bones found on Sanibel concern beachgoers

A Sunday beach day turned into quite the discovery at Lighthouse Beach Park.

A husband and wife found what appeared to be bones. What type and where they came from is being investigated.

“The tide was going out, creating a pull between the sandbar and the beach, and she was looking for shells and she goes, ‘This is a weird-looking shell,'” said Bryan Scolet, who found the bones.

Scolet and his wife were shelling and swimming like usual when his wife found what appeared to be a strange-looking shell.

“I go, ‘Let me see that,’ and I go, ‘That’s not a shell; that’s a bone,’ and she goes, ‘How do you know, because it’s hallow in the middle?'” Scolet said.

That’s when Scolet called the Sanibel Police Department.

“So, we waited for the officer to show up, and he goes, ‘Oh yeah, we see this a lot because of the shrimpers use all kinds of various things out there, and they wash on shore,'” Scolet said.

We spoke with Eric Jackson, Sanibel’s public information officer. He said this isn’t as unusual as you might think.

“It’s pretty common, actually. Crab fishermen like to use pork bones and other animal scraps when they are fishing, so it’s not uncommon for people to find,” Jackson said.

But to be sure, the Sanibel Police Department is sending the bones over to the medical examiner.

“Get the photos to the medical examiner and the bones to the medical examiner so the experts can look at it and determine what it is,” Jackson said.

It should take about a week or so to find out if these are bones and what type they are. The Sanibel Police Department said if you come across something that doesn’t look right, just give them a call.