Rare, endangered and protected shells were collected.
An employee of the local veterinary institute called the police against two Hungarian tourists in Croatia, on the island of Vir, for taking rare and endangered large clams protected from the water and noticing a large clam from the water. Morski.hr News hvg. hu.
According to the Croatian newspaper, an employee of the institute who was diving at one of the sites sent the photos to a colleague in the capital, with the text saying “Hungarians take big pork shells out of the water!” Therefore, the employee from Zagreb contacted the nearest police station in Zadar, and police officers were dispatched to the scene.
Little did the Hungarian tourists know that they had stumbled upon a very rare and valuable shell and brought it to light. Mussels are so rare that, according to the Croatian newspaper, there are only 26 specimens left in the Adriatic Sea.
Little did the tourists know that they could endanger the life of the mussel by disturbing it, nor how to determine if a particular specimen was alive in the case of a large pork loin mussel. The collection of living or even dead conch shells is strictly prohibited by the Croatian Nature Conservation Act.
The article did not disclose whether the Hungarians were fined or not.