Sea Shells legal or not????

[friend of Eeyore]

In July, I was allowed to purchase a large, beautiful conch shell off the beach from two young boys who obviously made a business of doing this with cruise ship passengers. I put it in a duty-free bag (because of the sand), and had no problem going through x-ray. I think that was the best $3 purchase I've ever made - it's absolutely beautiful.:)

 

This month (October), someone reported on the Princess boards during their review, that they were not allowed to bring back any shells.:(

 

So, my question is: is it legal to bring back shells - empty ones - from the islands? I know that the conch meat is not legal, and I know that craft items purchased are okay, but what about the natural shells from the ocean/beach??:confused:

[colonialinnkeeper]

We have been traveling in the Caribbean for 15 years and I have always brought home shells that I have found on the beach or ones that I have bought in the little beach areas from islanders. We have never been asked about my little baggy of shells. Once, I even brought home a small piece of dead coral with the shells. The last time I did this was this past March. We'll be going again in two weeks and I will do the same.

[bruce-r]

Bringing empty shells back to the US isn't a problem. Taking them from some islands is illegal however. I don't know the law in the Turks and Caicos, but I do know that it is illegal to take anything from the west side beaches in Cozumel because that is all part of a marine preserve.

[riz]

Taking shells from Turks is in fact illegal and the signs are there to inform people. Taking coral could have you prosecuted.

 

Have been to Provo and the signs are up ....recently in Grand Turk we noticed the signs up at the beaches as well.

[friend of Eeyore]

Taking shells from Turks is in fact illegal and the signs are there to inform people. Taking coral could have you prosecuted.

Well, this made me curious. So, I went to the Turks & Caicos governmental website, and looked up the fisheries regulations. This is what I found: (Hopefully it's okay to cite this verbatim. If not, I'll paraphrase tomorrow.)

 

Fisheries Protection CAP. 104

4(b)any person proceeding to a place outside the Islands, upon payment of any export duty payable under any law for the time being in force, may take with him any worked black coral, not more than three of any sponge or in the case of any other species of marine product other than black coral not more than ten pounds in weight of each of any species of marine product without being the holder of an export licence;

14. (1) Any person who takes or is in possession of or sells any marine product smaller than the legal size shall be guilty of an offence: provided that a person shall not commit an offence under this regulation if having inadvertently taken any marine product which is undersize, he forthwith returns the same to the water unharmed.

(2) For the purpose of this regulation the legal size means, in relation to––

(a) Crawfish…..

(b) Conch

(i) a minimum shell length of 7 inches measured from the spiral tip to the foremost edge; and

(ii) a conch meat, when removed from the shell, of a total weight of 8 ounces after the removal of the digestive gland.

By reading this (and the rest of the regulations), I believe that the government of T&C can regulate the taking of conch shells, and does limit you to shells of large size. However, those that I bought from the boys at the pier were of legal size, and I was still under the 10lb limit.

 

Is there anyone who lives in Turks and Caicos who can say whether or not my interpretation is correct??:confused: :confused:

[riz]

Hi Cathy

 

Now I am curious too. We were just there 2 weeks ago and the signs are up - they are however not as specific as your post in that they do not describe size and amount etc. They basically just say any and all is not allowed to be taken.

 

You might want to check www.tciforum.com.

 

Theses are the boards for the islands and you may get more accurate info there. Over the years I have travelled to these islands numerous times and have found lots of great information from the "belongers" who frequent the boards.