Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren bog Obam. Here, we humans tend to
Speaker 1: enjoy the ocean, so it makes sense that we'd want
Speaker 1: to take a piece of at home with us. But
Speaker 1: be warned, beachside souvenir hunting can land you in prison
Speaker 1: if you go overboard. Case in point, early in summer
Speaker 1: of a Texas woman was find five hundred dollars and
Speaker 1: sentenced to fifteen days in jail by a Florida judge
Speaker 1: for illegally harvesting forty queen conk shells on her Key
Speaker 1: West vacation. Queen counk's are marine snails who live in
Speaker 1: gorgeous shells of their own making. Florida allows people to
Speaker 1: collect the vacant shells, but it's illegal to take one
Speaker 1: that's still occupied by a live conk. The shells that
Speaker 1: the aforementioned Texan took had living, breathing mollusks in them.
Speaker 1: Florida has a vested interest in these nautical treasures. On
Speaker 1: the shell loaded island of Santabelle, a barrier community near
Speaker 1: Fort Myers beachcombing is a major draw for tourists, and
Speaker 1: when residents noticed their precious commodity were vanishing, they took action.
Speaker 1: In the late twentieth century, locals started worrying that out
Speaker 1: of towners were pillaging too many shells. As a conservation measure,
Speaker 1: Santabell banned the collection of any shells with their original
Speaker 1: mollusks still living inside, as well as any sand dollars, starfish,
Speaker 1: and sea urchins. The band took effect in and has
Speaker 1: since been extended throughout Santabell's home county. If you've noticed
Speaker 1: sea shell depletion on the beaches you visit, know that
Speaker 1: it's not just a matter of light fingered vacationers. Organized
Speaker 1: poaching has become a serious global concern. We spoke via
Speaker 1: email with Vincent Nyman, an anthropology professor at Oxford Brooks
Speaker 1: University in the United Kingdom. In a study he co authored,
Speaker 1: Nyman documented the illegal trade of Indonesia's protected shells. The
Speaker 1: Indonesian government keeps a list of mollusks that are legal
Speaker 1: to trade or collect within the republic's jurisdiction. Chambered nautilus's,
Speaker 1: triton's trumpets, and some giant clams are among the creatures
Speaker 1: ostensibly protected by law. There Yet, poaching is rampant. Nyman's
Speaker 1: paper tells of twenty illegal shipments that were intercepted by
Speaker 1: the Indonesian authorities between two thousand eight and put together,
Speaker 1: these busts yielded more than forty two thousand shells of
Speaker 1: protected species, valued at seven hundred thousand dollars. Niman said,
Speaker 1: it's very important to note that we're not talking about
Speaker 1: individual tourists collecting a couple of shells on the beach,
Speaker 1: putting them in their suit case in bringing them home.
Speaker 1: We're talking about a large scale commercial trade where the
Speaker 1: shells are collected by active fishing, scuba diving cages, et cetera,
Speaker 1: and where entire sections of the ocean floor are emptied.
Speaker 1: He stresses the poachers like to grab occupied shells and
Speaker 1: then destroy the animals within them. He explained that when
Speaker 1: the animals are alive, their shells are usually an excellent condition,
Speaker 1: as opposed to shells that have been discarded and washed
Speaker 1: up on the beach, which are often damaged. Mosques aren't
Speaker 1: the only animals who have been hurt by the reckless
Speaker 1: over hunting of seashells. When stales, nautiluses and other sea
Speaker 1: animals die of natural causes other creatures like to move
Speaker 1: into their former shell homes. We also spoke via email
Speaker 1: with my Koluski, an ecologist at the University of Florida.
Speaker 1: He said the most obvious examples are hermit crabs, which
Speaker 1: use empty shells as protective armor. There are, in fact,
Speaker 1: many marine habitats where it's hard to find an empty
Speaker 1: shell because hermit crabs in habit almost all of them.
Speaker 1: When there aren't enough shells to go around, hermit crab
Speaker 1: populations are curved, and housing is just one service that
Speaker 1: unused shells offer. Some sea creatures and birds eat them
Speaker 1: for mineral supplements like calcium carbonate. Others use the sturdy
Speaker 1: shells as anchors from other mollusks to barnacles and many more.
Speaker 1: The harvest of these shells isn't just bad for the
Speaker 1: local ecosystem, it's also bad for the environment and ultimately
Speaker 1: for the humans who live and visit there. Take Yarga Beach,
Speaker 1: a lovely slice of the Iberian Peninsula loocated in Slow Spain.
Speaker 1: It's a hot vacation destination that's enjoyed increasing popularity. Wanting
Speaker 1: to know more about how this rise in human activity
Speaker 1: was affecting the ecosystem, Koluski rolled up his sleeves and
Speaker 1: hit the scene. From July nineteen seventy eight through July one,
Speaker 1: he and his colleagues put together monthly catalogs of all
Speaker 1: the seashell material they could find on Yarga Beach. Kaluski
Speaker 1: returned decades later for a new round of surveys, beginning
Speaker 1: in two thousand eight and ending his discoveries weren't encouraging tourism.
Speaker 1: Data revealed an almost threefold increase in visitation between nineteen
Speaker 1: During that same period, the number of seashells on Yarga
Speaker 1: Beach fell by more than six coincidence probably not. Other
Speaker 1: beach side communities should be worried about the same kind
Speaker 1: of decline in seashells, and not just for environmental reasons.
Speaker 1: Shells tend to break up into particles that are bigger
Speaker 1: than typical sand grains. These shell fragments help beaches fight
Speaker 1: erosion by locking up, making it harder for winds, waves,
Speaker 1: and water currents to move shoreline sediment around. If we
Speaker 1: remove too many seashells, it will become harder for our
Speaker 1: beaches to resist the forces of erosion, and that could
Speaker 1: affect shore side buildings, roads and other infrastructure. So what's
Speaker 1: the solution? Nyman notes, in many countries there are excellent
Speaker 1: laws in placed prevent over harvesting. Companies and individuals should
Speaker 1: follow the existing regulations and the authorities should enforce them.
Speaker 1: It is an economic crime and should be handled as such.
Speaker 1: He added, the prosecutors and judges must take large scale
Speaker 1: poaching operations more seriously. Today's episode was written by Mark Mancini,
Speaker 1: whose name I've been mispronouncing for about two years now,
Speaker 1: and it was produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is
Speaker 1: a production of iHeart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more
Speaker 1: in this and lots of other multidisciplinary topics, visit our
Speaker 1: home planet, how stuff Works dot com. And for more
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