Shell Collecting/Live Collection/Endangered Species

OK. It's all been said. Nobody wants to take anything LIVE from anywhere. Wow, what a can of worms nobody wants. So, I got into diving 5 years ago because I got frustrated adding shells to my collection beach combing and snorkelling for 40 years.
I don't take thousands to sell, or catch them in my fish nets as "bycatch". One or 2, 3 or 4. Nobody CARES up North, so it's whatever I want to take--and some of the North Atlantic shells are "beautiful in their own right". So, after 40 years of NOT diving I want to take ONE Triton Trumpet and get SCOLDED because they are predators of the Crown of Thorns, which kill reefs. The Triton Trumpets themselves are somewhat endangered as well due to "overcollecting" (by shell shops?) because they are so beautiful. So, people fish Queen Conch over the last 40 years to near extinction because folks like to eat "conch fritters". And I can be fined a million bucks fo taking ONE for my collection. My collection is somewhat scientific, as the shells are positioned according to habitat, and scientific names are available to look up.

So maybe this IS a troll. I'm just so ticked off at almost EVERY diver and charter op who
says "don't ever take anything alive". And I'm going to a rare spot in the Caribbean next month where the country AND dive op permits live shell collecting.

I read dive magazines, the internet, and look at the ads. Divers just don't have any interest in shells. They like fish, sharks, octopi. Who cares about a "conch". Who even knows that "Conch" is a specific TYPE of shell, not just a big thing divers see. There are whelks, cones, cowries, olives, helmets--that are not conchs, and I could get scientific-- such as -- how many divers know ANYTHING about what shells are endangered? Those who do, please reply to me.

Shell Collectors are not destroying the World. Fishing vessels, pesticides and coastal developments (where we go as divers) are. I am a member of Seashell Collector.com
Worldwide Collectors. I want to take one or two. It won't hurt, and I've been waiting 40 years. And if it offends anyone that I plan take live shells on my Caribbean trip, I am happy, because this is the ONE place I've found that allows it. And if I am successfull, I want those folks to know I have taken live shells from the ocean.

Very good.

How do you go about bringing your latest additions to your rather scientific collection back with you, regarding preparation and Customs other than in a bag?

Canada Customs (and U.S. Customs) generally don't care as long as there is no meat in the shells-- except with Queen Conchs. The trick is finding a dive op down there that permits collecting.

I do about 90% of my diving off the reefs and wrecks of Largo, Tavernier and Islamorada. In the five years I have been diving I have yet to see a shell worth collecting on these dives and definitely nothing alive just old rotted out shells. Suppose it is because of those millions of divers who just wanted to take one or two or three shell? Or maybe I am confused in that there never were any shells out there. For years I had seen movies about the ocean and diving in which there were always a lot of shells laying around on the bottom. I've always wondered about this. Help me out here.

I saw a Triton's Trumpet shell in a display collection of forbidden items at Glasgow airport yesterday.

Some people get really weird if you kill a snail. To the point of being ridiculous.

Have fun and good luck!

List of Gastropods and other invertebrates that are prohibited from import to Canada. Importation prohibition is not limited to the live critters, but any part and any form. They are not on the list.

CITES - Canadian Wildlife Service - Environment Canada

You have to scroll down the list to find gastropods

GASTROPODA
Species
App.
English Name

ARCHAEOGASTROPODA
Haliotidae
Haliotis midae
Midas ear abalone, Perlemoen abalone

MESOGASTROPODA
Strombidae
Strombus gigas
Queen Conch, pink conch

STYLOMMATOPHORA
Achatinellidae
Achatinella spp.
Little agate snails, Oahu tree snails
Camaenidae
Papustyla pulcherrima
Papuina pulcherrima
Manus green tree snail

TMHeimer:

The Triton Trumpets themselves are somewhat endangered as well due to "overcollecting" (by shell shops?) because they are so beautiful.

Click to expand...

This said all I needed to know. If you know this (and I am assuming that you are correct in what you've said) and still want to take, then what you want is for everybody to bend the rules for you and only you. Right? If they are near extinct then they are likely porotected and anybody that takes one knowing that is not someone.....well not someone I would classify as "of quality moral fibre".

If this animal is not endangered in anyway then I say piss on the Op.....find another Op and shell away.

Just my $0.02

If you want a shell, go get your shell and have fun. The sky wont fall and the world wont end. People are so sensitive these days.