Hi Barbara,
Sorry your've had your fingers burnt re buying shells, but take
heart,mostly the dealers in the states and Canada are very ethical and only
to happy to please, I have dealt with a lot of USA dealers and can only say
nice things about them. Keep trying,
                        Dawn from Australia
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From: Barbara Jouvernaux <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Stombus Gigas
Date: Tuesday, December 07, 1999 6:59 PM

I was interested to read some of your messages regarding the CITES laws
about taking this shell. I had a rather unpleasant experience earlier in
the year when I made my first shell purchase over the internet. Having not
yet found this wonderful newsgroup full of information and advice, I was
quite naive. I ordered some shells from Shell Horizons, Florida. They
seemed very reasonably priced and their website showed beautiful examples.
Being a beginner I still need a lot of the common shells. I ordered, among
others, 2 Stombus Gigas. At the time I had no idea it was an endangered
species, and there was no mention of this on the website. In fact, they
proudly display in bold letters: " we do not trade in endangered species".
I emailed them several times before placing my order to check things out,
and I asked whether a permit was required to export the shells to NZ. I was
told no.
When the shipment arrived it was duly inspected by NZ Customs and our
Conservation Dept. They identified the Queen Conch shells and siezed them.
I received the remainder of the shells with a very strong letter from
Customs berating me for ordering these shells and informing me they would
be destoyed.
I was very upset and concerned, so I phoned the Conservation Dept and
Customs and spoke to several people about it. I explained that I had no
idea it was on the endangered list, and showed them records of emails
received from Shell Horizons, etc. They said the shipment should have come
with a CITES permit, but eventually agreed that if I could get a belated
CITES permit from the seller, they would consider it. Back I went to Shell
Horizons to tell them exactly what I thought of the whole thing, and I
wasn't happy with the quality of the shells I received either. Nearly all
of them were badly chipped, cracked or dead and dull.
The guy I dealt with was really rude, saying the shells were "good" quality
according to him and anyway what do you expect for that price..., and that
NZ Customs were just a bunch of trouble-making fanatics. He was not at all
interested in getting me a permit, he insisted that a permit was only
required for commercial shipments of a dozen or more. He informed me they
sell thousands of them all over the world without trouble. This is not
legal according to the authorities here. Anyhow, I finally got a refund for
the 2 Strombus Gigas from Shell Horizons, with much grumbling from them.
Anyway, that experience taught me some valuable lessons. It will be a while
before I even consider another purchase from overseas. In any case the
freight charge was nearly as much as the shells, which makes the exercise
pointless.
This whole issue of Strombus Gigas being classified as endangered, yet
seems to be sold in huge quantities is a real worry. I sent an email to the
CITES office for the Florida area about it, but I never even received an
acknowledgement or reply.  It would be quite nice to have a Strombus Gigas
for my collection, but I certainly do not want to contribute to the trade
of an endangered species. How would I be able to tell for sure when or
where a shell was taken - unscrupulous dealers are not going to admit to
breaking the law. I think I will just steer clear from this one - there are
many other beautiful shells out there that are plentiful.
By the way - any other endangered shells I should be aware of??