Hello All,

I have been watching this Belieze thread and I have to throw my 2 cents
worth in. Back in February, a friend of ours went to Belieze to see the
sights and get away from wintery East Tennessee. I had asked him if he
found himself on a beach to pick me up a few shells. He did and very
proudly brought me almost fossilixed, worm eaten, bleached-white broken
junk Melongena melongena, because he did not know any better. The part
of this incident that you should know about is that for him to get this
junk though Customs he was forced to purchase a $50 CITES certificate
that was filled out by Customs as if the shells were Strombus gigas
taken alive!!!

What is up with this? Are the Custom Agents corrupt or truely that
ignorant?
He also told me that he saw in a fish market a very large logger head
turtle which he was offered the chance to buy, and if he did they would
set it free. His reply was, "My heart says yes, my wallet says no, and
even if I did buy him and set him free, you'd capture him again and sell
him again tomorrow to some other tourist". What does this tell you about
them guarding their marine treasures?

Does anybody know what happens if you mail your shells home from Belieze
with the usual "seashells for reseach" declaration?


CITES, what a joke.

Mariah Lawson

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Mark and Mariah Lawson
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