What are the best beaches for sea glass hunting?

Hi Esther,

Sea glass is pretty abundant here, and while I used to recommend Souris (still pretty decent) as the best place to find sea glass, I now highly suggest you check out Tea Hill/Keppoch. I was in both places this past weekend and definitely found way more in Keppoch.

There are a number of things that influence how common sea glass is on any given shore. There may have been a glass factory nearby in which case broken or faulty bottles would have been carried to the shore and just pitched into the sea. Or it could have simply been the location of an old dump. Long before our current sanitation systems people would often just take household garbage to the shore.

In the case of Souris, it may be the case that there was a dump near the shore 100 or more years ago. This would make sense as it takes 10 to 100 years for sea glass to form from the sharp clear pieces of bottles, glassware, and crockery.

For Tea Hill/ Keppoch the biggest factors are the proximity to Charlottetown Harbour and the long history of summer homes along the shore.

But as you said you can find sea glass all around PEI. In that case while some may come from old dump sites, some of the glass you are finding may have come from shipwrecks. It's been estimated that there are 15,000 to 20,000 shipwrecks in the waters of Atlantic Canada. Add to that the amount of contraband bottles that ended up in the water during prohibition, when rum runners would dump their cargo rather than get caught bootlegging, it makes for a lot of potential sources for sea glass.

I hope you find some real keepers on your sea glass hunts!

Rod Weatherbie