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| Sea Scallop |
Second to lobster, grilled sea scallops are my absolute favorite seafood.
Sea scallops are called bivalves, having two hinged shells, like clams and oysters. The shells are scalloped with fluted edges, usually reddish-pink or brown in color. Its lower shell is white or cream-colored. They're commonly found on beaches and are fun for the seashell collector to find.
Each ring on a scallop's shell represents a year of growth, similar to how tree rings indicate a tree's age. Atlantic sea scallops can live up to 20 years. Environmental conditions dictate populations. There are more than 400 species of scallops found around the world. They are one of the cleanest shellfish available.
Sea scallops can swim by opening and closing their shells. They open their shells to filter plankton out of the seawater for food...the tiny organisms get caught in the scallop's mucus and tiny hairs move the food toward the mouth.
They can have up to 200 eyes, located along the mantle lining of their shells (photo left). The eyes can detect shadows and movement, which enables them to escape their predators. I should note that scallop eyes are one of the most unusual visual systems in Nature. They're said to be similar to reflecting telescopes. Their complexities are still being studied.
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The scallop shell is imprinted
on milestones that show the way to
Santiago de Compostela |
Camino de Santiago in Galicia, Spain, is a pilgrimage route that traces the path of apostle St. James to the Cathedral of Santiago. (Said to be the burial place of the apostle St. James.) Along the route, the scallop shell is the symbol of the pilgrimage and is used in its Christian art and architecture, including doorways, arches and baptismal fonts. The shell's grooves that radiate outward from a central point, have been interpreted as a metaphor for the rays of Divine light extending out to the world. St. James is said to have used the scallop shell to pour water on his converts' heads in Baptism.
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Scallop Shell Art and Architecture
of Camino de Santiago |
The scallop shell is a metaphor for a pilgrimage, emphasizing the idea that the journey is more important than the destination.
Shell Oil's logo actually started out as the black and white mussel shell found on a beach in the Philippines. Over the years, it has changed to the Scallop which is instantly recognizable in a bright yellow and red color scheme. The yellow associates with energy and optimism, and the red associates with power and strength.
All my life, I've been fascinated with seashells....the tiny structures in which a sea creature once lived on its own journey, While most scallop shells share a similar fan-shape, each scallop shell is slightly different...in color, growth variations and the patterns of its ridges. Regions, habitats and species play a significant part in their uniqueness.
If I was to choose one tiny piece of Creation to remind me of the Divine Force in my life, I'd quite possibly opt for the shell of the sea scallop. Looking at it from bottom to top, it embodies the concept of life fanning out in stages from baby to child to adolescent to adult to its sacred end. From the top to bottom it mirrors how we individuals walk side by side through life toward the same destination.
