Fresno woman fined $88K after kids collect clams from Pismo Beach

PISMO BEACH, Calif. (KFSN) -- At the extremity of past year, Charlotte Russ and her household took a travel to Pismo.

"My kids they thought they were collecting oversea shells, but they were really collecting clams, 72 to beryllium exact," said Fresno nonmigratory Charlotte Russ.

Her children collected rows of clams, but they learned an costly lesson: clamming has regulations.

"Right earlier we went that's erstwhile I opened it and that's erstwhile I saw the amount," said Russ.

She got a summons connected the spot and aboriginal received a announcement she would person to wage conscionable implicit $88,000.

"It made maine truly bittersweet and depressed, and it benignant of ruined our trip," said Russ.

Lt. Matthew Gil with the Department of Fish and Wildlife says the rules are successful spot to support the taxon of the shellfish.

"The crushed we got it we person these regulations is due to the fact that we person to fto them get to 4 and a fractional inches truthful they tin spawn truthful they tin person they tin person offspring each year, and they person juvenile clams," said Lt. Gil.

Lt. Gil adding it's important to amended yourself and your children earlier going ashore.

"If you person a dormant soil dollar, a dormant animal, oregon thing similar that, oregon you person a breached oversea shell, that's fine," said Lt. Gil. "Pismo clams -- what you're gonna spot is some shells volition beryllium intact together," said Lt. Gil.

If you can't instrumentality them a portion precise easily, its a clam.

A quality Russ's kids are present alert of.

"They cognize present astatine the formation don't interaction anything, but they cognize present what a clam is, compared to what a seashell is now, I've had to explicate that to them," said Russ.

Thankfully, aft explaining the clam disorder to a San Luis Obispo County judge, she got her good reduced to $500.

Now, she tin laughter astir it.

"So I got this aft I 'won' my case, successful Pismo," said Russ.

This tattoo of a shellfish is to punctual her of the concern and conscionable however bully her children are astatine being clam fishers.

But each jokes and clam chuckles aside, she wants others to beryllium alert -- truthful they don't person the aforesaid shellfish struggles arsenic her.

"It was decidedly 1 costly travel to Pismo, unforgettable," said Russ.

Last year, determination were 58 citations issued for this occupation successful San Luis Obispo.

Russ says determination are signs posted, but she says she wishes determination were much due to the fact that it is conscionable not thing her family, who were precise anxious to person fun, paid attraction to.

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