Press
Pretty expensive: After a visit to the beach, a family in California received a five-figure fine.
Pismo Beach – building sandcastles, playing beach volleyball, looking for shells – the perfect day at the beach for many vacationers. Not much can go wrong, or at least you would think. For the family of American Charlotte R., however, the beach vacation suddenly became very, very expensive. On a trip to Pismo Beach, also known as the “shell capital of the world,” mother and children took advantage of this fact and diligently collected shells. The five children had collected a total of 72 of them by the end of the day, reports the US-TV channel abc7.
Huge fine for collecting mussels: Family experiences shock on vacation
It was just stupid that the children didn’t check carefully whether the shells were really empty. It was doubly stupid that the family was caught by the fisheries authorities. The five young people had taken live mussels as souvenirs. Unfortunately, that is not allowed. There are strict regulations for collecting clams in California.
Lt. Matthew Gil of the Department of Fish and Wildlife told the abc7 “We have to let the mussels grow to eleven and a half centimetres so that they can spawn and have offspring next year.”
Family goes to court after mussel fine
The authorities gave the mother of five a ticket, which was probably to be expected. What shocked her, however, was the amount she saw when she opened the letter. She was supposed to pay a whopping $88,000 (about 81,000 euros) as a fine. “That made me very sad and kind of ruined our trip,” the mother told the TV station.
Collecting empty shells is of course fine, but you have to check that they really no longer contain any living animals.
Charlotte R. went to court and her fine was reduced to $500. At least the kids learned from the incident that they shouldn’t pick up everything on the beach. And the mother also seems to have gotten over the shock and had a shell tattooed on her arm as a reminder of the crazy bill.
Croatia proves that you should inform yourself about existing laws and prohibitions before going on a beach holiday in Europe, with some rules for tourist hotspots.
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