In Reply to: Australian Customs won't let you bring posted by adj on Thursday, 3. March 2005 at 08:26 Bali Time:
as long as they are clean, with no trace of the animal. I don't collect shells which have a creature inside, but the ones which are just going to be gradually bashed to pieces in the surf may as well be part of someone's Bali memories. Remember that many of the shells in rock pools may appear empty, but will have hermit crabs inside.
Last August I was snorkeling in Amed and found a spider shell on the bottom as big as my hand. A great find, but it had an animal inside so it stayed where it was. When we were at Bali Cliff, we saw an old Balinese man heading home with a bagful of an unusual, but interesting kind of shell. He told us they were for eating. Maybe I should have offered to buy the empty shells from him.
One shell you can't bring back into Australia is that of the Giant African Elephant Snail. This isn't a joke, they really do exist. They have become established in Bali. As the name suggests, they grow very large and have a voracious appetite. Even though the shell may be absolutely clean and baked in the sun, you can't bring it in.