Children collect “shells” on the beach, fine of 80 thousand euros for mother: «Ruined holidays»

There vacation long awaited. The sand under your feet, the sun high in the sky and the sea that extends, seemingly infinite, towards the horizon. The mother sees her five children in the distance, walking here and there and picking shells for Pismo Beach, IN California.

The shells and the fine, what happened

After a while they show up with the loot: 72 shells and… a fine of 80 thousand euros. His children, apparently, had just violated the law: without having permission to do so, they had “fished” for clams in the place called “Clam Capital of the World”, i.e. the world capital of clams. At that point, the mother had to deal with complaints from the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife.

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The Department of Fish and Wildlife advised the mother, Charlotte Russ, that what her children had just done was illegal because they did not have the correct permit, and she was issued a fine. «I looked at it just before leaving and at that point I saw the amount…», which fortunately was reduced from 88,993 dollars to 500 thanks to the judge’s understanding. “At first I was sad and depressed – says Charlotte – and this fact practically ruined our holiday”, although she admits that the bad experience taught her children an excellent lesson on the need to respect the rules that protect wildlife wild. “Now they know that it’s better not to touch anything on the beach, and they also know the difference between a shell and a clam, after I had to explain it to them,” says their mother, who got a tattoo of a shell to remember the moment and her victory in court on the arm. It’s not the first time something like this has happened, however. As reported by the New York Post, in fact, in 2023, 58 fines were issued for the same reason. The Department of Fish and Wildlife states that the severity of the punishment serves to protect the species and their reproduction. Pismo clams are found only in the eastern Pacific Ocean and are characterized by a thick, triangular, large shell, usually brown.

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