Cops seize trumpet shells in Cebu

Authorities seized several pieces of rare trumpet shells or "budyong" (Cassis cornuta) in Daanbantayan town in Cebu shortly before midnight Sunday.

 

The Cebu provincial government on Monday morning said the anti-illegal fishing task force intercepted the shells at New Port in Daanbantayan at 11:30 p.m. Sunday.

 

It said nine crewmembers of a pumpboat were unloading the shells to a waiting truck when the task force chanced on them.

 

Another set of trumpet shells was already loaded on the truck at the time, the provincial government said.

 

"The said shells are said to have come from Masbate," it added.

 

It said the shells and the truck were taken into the custodyof Daanbantayan police. An inventory is to be done on Monday.

 

Meanwhile, the provincial government said the operator of the pump boat is reportedly the same as that of another vessel previously apprehended for allegedly carrying dynamite.

 

Budyong is considered a prohibited species. A paper on the philippine shell industry noted Fisheries Administrative Order 158 was issued in 1986, prohibiting the gathering and possessing for sale of mollusks belonging to the genera Triton, Charonia and Cassis. —Joel Locsin/NB, GMA News