“They could will have been harvesting them.”
My parents owned property with a cabin beachside at Pismo and we go almost every year to relax down there. My father and I used to walk the beach in the morning and collect clams, correct size, getting those that ended up stranded on the sand when the tide receded. If the news agency is trying to say that they went down the beach and collected 72 clams in one day, they are not telling the truth. You could walk from Shell Beach, north of Pismo, all the way past the white dunes south of the state park and not get close to that amount. They’d been doing the collect for days unless they were also clamming and had licenses. And unless they were camping on the beach, all 72 wouldn’t have been seen by the game warden together if they had them.
72 is not enough to make any real difference for them though as it might make a good amount of chowder or cocktail, but it won’t corner the market. So they were doing it for the family, and got caught in possession of too many and that has been a heavily observed law since the 1950’s. They just weren’t real bright.
wy69
You went to Pismo all the time and understood told the rules and wildlife. This family is from Fresno, so it is possible the Valley dwellers don’t get to the beach very often and are ignorant of the rules and regs.
“So they were doing it for the family, and got caught in possession of too many and that has been a heavily observed law since the 1950’s. They just weren’t real bright.”
According to my son, there are signs all over the place warning people that they that they can’t take clams without a license, the minimum size, and daily limit.
Years ago our family was on vacation and I was standing on the beach at Pismo. I had heard stories of a fish cop who was writing a lot of citations for violations on fishing boats and pretty anything else. Anyway, I looked down and saw some bubbles. I dug in and it was a small clam. I put it back and walked away. If I had kept it I would have been fined, because the fish cop was watching me a few yards behind me.