Dear friends,
I received the following e-mail from Mrs. GENEVIEVE JIANG, this information is
useful for your shelling trip.
Lots of thanks to Mrs. GENEVIEVE JIANG that inform me about.
Best regards.
George



mark wrote:

> BY GENEVIEVE JIANG (Singapore Newspaper -
> The New Paper) May 21, 2001
> (Note: Singapore and Malaysia
> are 2 sovereign countries. Kindly pass the below
> message to shell collectors who might be
> unaware of such existing law in Malaysia with
> many island resorts).
>
> JUST sea shells from the sea shore. But they nearly
> landed a Singaporean couple in a Malaysian prison
> They were stopped by Malaysian police as
> they were about to head home from Pulau Tioman.
> They were told they could to be thrown into jail for
> two weeks for picking up shells there.
> The Malaysian Fisheries Department says it is an offence
> to pick corals and sea shells in Pulau Tioman because it
> is a gazetted marine park.The engineering assistant,
> who wants to be known only as Mr Hoo, 35, had gone to
> Pulau Tioman for a holiday with his 31-year-old wife on
> May 5. But the three-days-two-nights holiday ended
> on a sour note.Recalled Mr Hoo, who stayed at the
> Berjaya Tioman Beach Resort: "Just as my wife and I
> were about to board the ferry at 2.30pm on May 7,
> we were stopped by officials from the Fisheries Department.
> "My wife was carrying a plastic bag with some snacks
> and a small bag of sea shells, about 300g, which we had
> picked up from the beach."The officials told us that we were
> not allowed to take the shells home and that we had to
> follow them to the police station."
> At the station, Mr Hoo and his wife realised that they
> weren't the only tourists who had been caught.
> There were six Malaysians including two young children,
> three English women and a German couple at the station,
> all detained for the same offence.
> Said Mr Hoo: "The police told us it was an offence for
> us to pick up sea shells or corals from Malaysian waters
> and beaches and take them home.
> "But the shells I picked up were just ordinary sea shells.
> Not special corals. Some were even broken.
> "They told us that we would need a local guarantor to
> bail us out. If not, we would have to be put in jail for
> two weeks."I was shocked." They didn't know what to do.
> Two hours passed. Then out of the blue, their
> saviour turned up. "A Malaysian businessman who heard
> about our plight kindly agreed to be our guarantor.
> So we were let off." They were not told whether they
> would still face charges or any further proceedings.
> By then, the last ferry home had already left.
> Said Mr Hoo: "We had to check into our hotel all over again."
> He and his wife had to miss a day's work because of this.
> "We both had to call back to inform our bosses of what
> was happening. It was quite embarrassing."
> Mr Hoo had never had such an experience on his past
> visits to Tioman.
> He said: "I've never heard of such a law under which
> people can be arrested for picking up sea shells.
> The shells we picked up were from the beach in front
> of the resort where we stayed."

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George Sangiouloglou     http://www.geocities.com/~sangioul/
Xenofondos 40            http://members.xoom.com/sangioul/
Voula 16673              Phone +30 1 8955241  9659956
Athens Greece            Modem-Fax +30 1 8954507
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