South Beach on Marco Island

One of the two top public access points to Marco Beach. It has great shelling. Originally named San Marco Island by Spanish explorers, Marco Island is the largest barrier island within Southwest Florida's Ten Thousand Islands area extending southerly to Cape Sable. Like the City of Naples to the north, Marco Island enjoys a tropical climate, specifically a tropical wet and dry or savanna type (Aw under the Köppen system). It is known for distinct wet and dry seasons, with most of the rainfall falling between the months of June and October. This beach has gained some notoriety as the home of a strange species of creature known as the "horse conch". The Triplofusus giganteus, previously known as Pleuroploca gigantea, common name the Florida horse conch, is a species of extremely large predatory subtropical and tropical sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Fasciolariidae, the spindle snails, tulip snails and their allies.