STORY CONTINUES BELOW THESE SALTWIRE VIDEOS

SYDNEY, N.S. — When Mike Baran moved to Cape Breton in 2008, he had no idea what sea glass was. 

Now, he’s considered one of the foremost experts on the tide-tumbled treasures and runs the Sea Glass Shanty at the Joan Harriss Cruise Pavilion waterfront market where he sells his handmade sea glass ornaments, jewelry and suncatchers.

However, Baran is as much an historian as he is an artisan. After collecting more than 10,000 shards in the past 14 years, the self-described “sea glass archeologist” and author is able to pinpoint the source and stories behind most of the pieces you’re likely to find on the island’s shores, whether it’s a small piece of red glass from the brake light of an old car, a frosty green oval from an old telephone pole insulator, or a tiny marble fire from slingshot by some child generations ago.  

“Despite being one of the few people on the planet that actually beachcombs professionally — 100 per cent of my income comes from this — I do this out of love and legacy and connecting the pieces to the people that lived here generations ago,” said Baran, who has popular YouTube and Instagram pages where he documents his finds and helps people identify theirs. “It has taken 1,000 generations for us to get to this point where we have iPads and cars and our ability to create technology has just far exceeded our ability to understand what it's from. So with these little pieces of glass, we're able to reconnect to a simpler time in life and the people that made it possible for us to be here and enjoy Cape Breton Island.”

Baran, who also wrote a book, “Sea Glass: Piecing Together History!” was recently the keynote speaker at the Mermaid Tears Sea Glass Festival in P.E.I.

While many sea glass enthusiasts are reluctant to divulge their favourite spots, Baran said he firmly believes in what he calls “freedom of beach” as long as the location isn’t too dangerous for people unfamiliar with the conditions and location.

Here are his top five places to find sea glass:

• “Whenever somebody comes in and they're wanting to take their children to the shoreline to find sea glass, I always try to direct them in the Glace Bay area. Twenty thousand people living in the area correlates to about 20,000 bottles a year going into the ocean every year until about 1960 when garbage collection picked up. So I would send people to places like Hill Street or Fisherman Park.” 

• “My second favourite place to go would have to be Indian Beach in North Sydney. That has been receiving sea glass for over hundreds of years.” 

• “Inverness Beach is a place that you cannot go wrong because it was the old town dump and you can really still find old big pieces out there for sure.”

• “That's a place I've always wanted to go to but I've never had the chance, but people show me sea glass from Neils Harbour beach and that is a fantastic place.”

• “While Dominion beach is regarded as a place that is really picked over, it is one of the most historical places that you can pick in Cape Breton. I know somebody from Dominion beach who actually found a glass eyeball on the shoreline. If you've heard the stories in the 1980s there was a hurricane and there were actual coffins sticking out of the shoreline after the hurricane. So this woman in 2009 brought me a piece of glass and she said ‘Did I really just find the glass eyeball?’ and sure enough she did. Even on Dominion beach I have found pieces of black pirate glass from the 1700s. The British actually had a cannon ship on Dominion beach in 1747. The French were marauding the coal out there. So when I find the bottom of an old case gin bottle, a square bottle, I attribute that to being from these old British sailors and some of the old pipes that I have found have come from Dominion beach as well. But Dominion beach is a spot where you have to pick the triangle beach — the triangle little piles of pebbles — and you have to go out at low tide.”

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