A tourist from France had piled the pebbles in the trunk of his car and was trying to leave the island of Sardinia on a ferry bound for Nice. However, before boarding the ferry, the man was stopped by Italian customs officials.
“He had 41 kilograms of pebbles and stones from Lampianu beach in his trunk. They were confiscated and will be returned,” the customs officials said in a report.
Sardinia, a large Italian island in the Mediterranean Sea, is well known for its white sand beaches, which are so valuable that since 2017, tourists have been banned from taking stones and sand from it. This ban was introduced to protect beaches from erosion or degradation.
“Sandy beaches are the main attraction of Sardinia. There are two threats: erosion, which is partly natural and partly caused by climate change; and tourists who steal sand,” Sardinian environmental scientist Pierluigi Coco told the BBC in 2019.
The fine for stealing sand, pebbles and shells from the beaches is 300 to 3000 euros. Most of what is stolen is usually sold. Surprisingly, the demand for Sardinian beach materials is very high on the Internet.
2023-09-02 21:00:00
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