PACIFIC OCEAN — Due to the increased sea glass hunting and decreased littering, sea glass is becoming an endangered species. Sea glass activists and environmentalists urge beach-goers to bring more colorful glass bottles and break them at the beach.
Not much is known about the mating life of sea glass because it has never actually gotten to mate. Sea glass usually gets picked up by humans and put inside pockets or plastic bags, where it suffocates.
Thankfully, some sea glass found at beaches is saved and this species is given a second chance at life through an artificial insemination method called “recycling.” This saved sea glass is turned into new bottles to be used for liquor that would later be consumed by humans at the beach.
Sea glass is born when a human breaks the bottle they’ve brought to the beach to celebrate a successful intoxication upon finishing her whiskey, wine, or beer. That’s when the young, sharp pieces of sea glass emerge from the sea bottles and begin their fragile journey by slowly making their way from the sand into the sea. Sometimes the sea glass journey is cut short, when passing humans obliviously step on the glass with their feet, accidentally stomping it to death.
If the pieces of glass do make it into the water, they develop there for many years, bumping and grinding against each other and the stones on the bare sea floor, because sea glass has been known to cut a rug. Eventually, each piece of glass matures into toned and smooth adult sea glass. It is then ready to mate and the ocean waves sway it back up the shore.
Although the appearance of sea glass is eye-catching, its mating call cannot be heard with a naked human ear. Recent technology has allowed scientists to create special sound-detecting equipment. Sea glass hunters wear giant headphones that connect to an extended sound detector on a stick, which can be used on land or in water. That way, if sea glass is hiding, the hunter will poke around with the microphone stick until he hits it, and will hear its mating call, which is the sound of glass breaking.