Barbara,

The sellers may have been alluding to the "ban" on taking Hawaiian
landshells of the Genus Achatinella.  These shells were commonly
available in the early part of this century  and were driven to
extiction and near extinction (check in the Conch-L archives for all
sorts of information on that).  The whole genus is now on the Endangered
Species list.

Other Hawaiian land snails that used to be very common are also
relatively unavailable today and could cost an arm and a leg.  The
situation with marine shells, however, is much different- still readily
available and not restricted.

There are, of course, agricultural restrictions; imagine my conversation
with the ag. inspector about the plastic bag full of unsorted micro-land
shell fossils that looked to him a lot like a bag full of dirt.  They
don't like you bringing dirt back to the mainland (something to do with
exporting soil-born crop diseases) so my fossils ended up in the trash.
Oh well.

Best regards,

Phil Liff-Grieff
[log in to unmask]
La Crescenta, California

Barbara Jouvernaux wrote:

> Hi everyone,I recently came across an elderly couple who are selling
> off some of their collection, and I got some nice shells from them for
> very reasonable prices. They were very keen collectors some twenty odd
> years ago, but they haven't kept their "hand in" since then, and from
> talking to them, even my limited knowledge seems more than they have
> retained.One thing which surprised me is that they told me it is
> impossible to get shells from Hawaii any more. According to them,
> there is a ban on taking any shells out of Hawaii. Therefore I was
> unable to get any of their shells from Hawaii because they want an arm
> and a leg for them!Is this true? If so, when did this happen and what
> exactly is the story?Does this mean that any shells taken from Hawaii
> in previous years have become very valuable? I only have a few shells
> from Hawaii, and now that I think of it, they were either given to me
> or bought from old collections years ago.I would appreciate some
> clarification on this.Thanks and kindest regards,Barbara