Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Broadstairs Woman Finds Whelk

A Broadstairs woman has spoken of her shock and surprise at finding a whelk.

Builder's wife Jody Dobson, 29, described the moment she was walking along the beach at Dumpton Gap and discovered what she thought was a Belgian chocolate. 'My mum buys me these Belgian chocolates for Christmas and I just thought it was one of them. But when I picked it up it was all hard like, and seemed more like a snail.'

Jody took the whelk home to show to her children - Chantelle, 5, and Reece, 7. She added: 'I never knew there was a beach at Dumpton Gap before, let alone these things on it. When my husband Craig came home he told me it was a whelk and not to be so daft. I felt like a right moron!'

Whelks are common along the Thanet coast, according to marine biologist Professor Paul Murray. 'They are distantly related to snails but actually belong to the Buccinidae family,' said Prof Murray. 'Whilst many are edible, they certainly do not taste like chocolate.'

Sadly the story has an unhappy ending, as Jody explains: 'Once I knew what it was, I kept it in a bucket of tap water, but it went all still and died not long after.'

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

........in tap water! Will she be getting a call from the RSPCW?

Tony2 said...

At last the education begins.

John Holyer said...

A contrived and unlikely story.

Gullible of garlinge said...

I enjoyed that heartwarming story

Anonymous said...

Thanet tap water kills! Time for change, blah blah blah.

Unknown said...

Can we have the serialisation rights to this story?

Unknown said...

I don't know, John, for I saw a woman coming up from the beach carrying a whelk. I remember thinking at the time "I wonder what she is going to do with that whelk!" Had I known she intended to drown it in a bucket I might have intervened. Now I shall be plagued by guilt.

Anonymous said...

There'll be a whelk home at the seaside

There'll be a whelk home in the shale

John Holyer said...

William,

Today the callous murder of our whelks, tomorrow it could be our winkles. The public should be warned.

Anonymous said...

According to the Urban Dictionary a whelk is "Means a very annoying person who never knows when to shut up.

Bloke one, "Hey your girlfriends a skank"
Bloke two, "Get the F*** out you Whelk""

There appear to be plenty in Thanet.

Peter C said...

An interesting Twitter thread on Richard Ash, the head of Margate Town Team:

https://twitter.com/ZoeMurphyDesign/status/412896626290995200

I've said before that I don't like that man, even though (like Ian Watkins) I was only near him for a few seconds and he never even spoke to me! Again, simply bad vibes...

Anonymous said...

I know where there are 56 more..