Dear Conchlers ,

One of my parcel sent from Philippines  to a collector in US ran into
trouble with the US Fisheries and Wildlife Department , .1633 Bayshore
HWY, STE 248, Burlingame, CA 94010 . Despite having the complete
documents (fisheries permit, list of shells , value , ...) for the
package, it was withheld by the authorities. Their reason for this was
apparently there were too many shells in the parcel (there were 38
different shells) leading them to think that the client is a merchant.
They further stated that the maximum shells that one can have in a
parcel is 7.

We were directed to Title 50, Part 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations
(CFR), which has guidelines on "Wildlife and Fisheries : Importation,
Exportation, and Transportation of Wildlife". There is absolutely
nothing here that mentions this limit, and as far as we know we have
abided by these laws as none of the shells on the package were
endangered, and we had documentation for the shells in the package.

Does anyone have any information on laws or regulations that has to do
with this 7 shell limit? Does anyone have any similar experience with
the Fish & Wildlife Service? Any help would be appreciated.

Regards
Jean-Pierre

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