WEBVTT - Do Beaches Need Seashells? 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:06.480 Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey 0:00:06.519 --> 0:00:10.240 brain Stuff, Lauren bog Obam. Here, we humans tend to 0:00:10.360 --> 0:00:12.959 enjoy the ocean, so it makes sense that we'd want 0:00:13.000 --> 0:00:14.680 to take a piece of at home with us. But 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:18.200 be warned, beachside souvenir hunting can land you in prison 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:22.240 if you go overboard. Case in point, early in summer 0:00:22.239 --> 0:00:25.319 of a Texas woman was find five hundred dollars and 0:00:25.320 --> 0:00:27.840 sentenced to fifteen days in jail by a Florida judge 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:30.720 for illegally harvesting forty queen conk shells on her Key 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:34.440 West vacation. Queen counk's are marine snails who live in 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:37.600 gorgeous shells of their own making. Florida allows people to 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:40.080 collect the vacant shells, but it's illegal to take one 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:42.920 that's still occupied by a live conk. The shells that 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:47.120 the aforementioned Texan took had living, breathing mollusks in them. 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:51.280 Florida has a vested interest in these nautical treasures. On 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:54.279 the shell loaded island of Santabelle, a barrier community near 0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:57.880 Fort Myers beachcombing is a major draw for tourists, and 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:01.440 when residents noticed their precious commodity were vanishing, they took action. 0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:04.759 In the late twentieth century, locals started worrying that out 0:01:04.760 --> 0:01:08.520 of towners were pillaging too many shells. As a conservation measure, 0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:11.319 Santabell banned the collection of any shells with their original 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:15.120 mollusks still living inside, as well as any sand dollars, starfish, 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:19.039 and sea urchins. The band took effect in and has 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:23.240 since been extended throughout Santabell's home county. If you've noticed 0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:25.640 sea shell depletion on the beaches you visit, know that 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:29.240 it's not just a matter of light fingered vacationers. Organized 0:01:29.280 --> 0:01:32.880 poaching has become a serious global concern. We spoke via 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:36.240 email with Vincent Nyman, an anthropology professor at Oxford Brooks 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:40.200 University in the United Kingdom. In a study he co authored, 0:01:40.400 --> 0:01:44.600 Nyman documented the illegal trade of Indonesia's protected shells. The 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:47.560 Indonesian government keeps a list of mollusks that are legal 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:51.760 to trade or collect within the republic's jurisdiction. Chambered nautilus's, 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:54.800 triton's trumpets, and some giant clams are among the creatures 0:01:54.800 --> 0:01:59.400 ostensibly protected by law. There Yet, poaching is rampant. Nyman's 0:01:59.440 --> 0:02:02.080 paper tells of twenty illegal shipments that were intercepted by 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:06.120 the Indonesian authorities between two thousand eight and put together, 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:09.000 these busts yielded more than forty two thousand shells of 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:13.920 protected species, valued at seven hundred thousand dollars. Niman said, 0:02:14.280 --> 0:02:16.440 it's very important to note that we're not talking about 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:19.200 individual tourists collecting a couple of shells on the beach, 0:02:19.360 --> 0:02:21.320 putting them in their suit case in bringing them home. 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:24.640 We're talking about a large scale commercial trade where the 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:28.240 shells are collected by active fishing, scuba diving cages, et cetera, 0:02:28.520 --> 0:02:31.160 and where entire sections of the ocean floor are emptied. 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:34.920 He stresses the poachers like to grab occupied shells and 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:37.959 then destroy the animals within them. He explained that when 0:02:37.960 --> 0:02:41.200 the animals are alive, their shells are usually an excellent condition, 0:02:41.280 --> 0:02:43.600 as opposed to shells that have been discarded and washed 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:47.400 up on the beach, which are often damaged. Mosques aren't 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:49.240 the only animals who have been hurt by the reckless 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:52.639 over hunting of seashells. When stales, nautiluses and other sea 0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:55.680 animals die of natural causes other creatures like to move 0:02:55.720 --> 0:02:59.639 into their former shell homes. We also spoke via email 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:02.880 with my Koluski, an ecologist at the University of Florida. 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:06.440 He said the most obvious examples are hermit crabs, which 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:09.520 use empty shells as protective armor. There are, in fact, 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:11.959 many marine habitats where it's hard to find an empty 0:03:11.960 --> 0:03:15.560 shell because hermit crabs in habit almost all of them. 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:18.080 When there aren't enough shells to go around, hermit crab 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:21.200 populations are curved, and housing is just one service that 0:03:21.320 --> 0:03:24.600 unused shells offer. Some sea creatures and birds eat them 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:28.080 for mineral supplements like calcium carbonate. Others use the sturdy 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:31.520 shells as anchors from other mollusks to barnacles and many more. 0:03:32.760 --> 0:03:34.760 The harvest of these shells isn't just bad for the 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:38.200 local ecosystem, it's also bad for the environment and ultimately 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:41.600 for the humans who live and visit there. Take Yarga Beach, 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:45.440 a lovely slice of the Iberian Peninsula loocated in Slow Spain. 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:49.520 It's a hot vacation destination that's enjoyed increasing popularity. Wanting 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:51.600 to know more about how this rise in human activity 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:54.640 was affecting the ecosystem, Koluski rolled up his sleeves and 0:03:54.720 --> 0:03:58.640 hit the scene. From July nineteen seventy eight through July one, 0:03:58.960 --> 0:04:01.520 he and his colleagues put together monthly catalogs of all 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:05.040 the seashell material they could find on Yarga Beach. Kaluski 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:07.560 returned decades later for a new round of surveys, beginning 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:12.920 in two thousand eight and ending his discoveries weren't encouraging tourism. 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:16.480 Data revealed an almost threefold increase in visitation between nineteen 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:20.880 During that same period, the number of seashells on Yarga 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:26.520 Beach fell by more than six coincidence probably not. Other 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:28.839 beach side communities should be worried about the same kind 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:32.240 of decline in seashells, and not just for environmental reasons. 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:35.159 Shells tend to break up into particles that are bigger 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:38.800 than typical sand grains. These shell fragments help beaches fight 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:41.960 erosion by locking up, making it harder for winds, waves, 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:45.520 and water currents to move shoreline sediment around. If we 0:04:45.520 --> 0:04:47.960 remove too many seashells, it will become harder for our 0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:50.640 beaches to resist the forces of erosion, and that could 0:04:50.640 --> 0:04:55.320 affect shore side buildings, roads and other infrastructure. So what's 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:59.200 the solution? Nyman notes, in many countries there are excellent 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:03.039 laws in placed prevent over harvesting. Companies and individuals should 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:06.440 follow the existing regulations and the authorities should enforce them. 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:09.040 It is an economic crime and should be handled as such. 0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:12.440 He added, the prosecutors and judges must take large scale 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:21.479 poaching operations more seriously. Today's episode was written by Mark Mancini, 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:24.240 whose name I've been mispronouncing for about two years now, 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:26.880 and it was produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:29.120 a production of iHeart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:31.560 in this and lots of other multidisciplinary topics, visit our 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:34.040 home planet, how stuff Works dot com. And for more 0:05:34.080 --> 0:05:36.640 podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:39.240 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.