Mombo Posted June 12, 2016 Share Posted June 12, 2016 Hi all. My friend and I were recently discussing whale fossils and the other fossils one can find at Calvert Cliffs. I will be going in a few weeks and am really excited about what I might be able to find. He is the educational director of a local nature sanctuary and he raised a concern regarding the legality of collecting or owning fossils related to marine mammals due to the marine mammal protection act. I see people on this forum and elsewhere who have collected whale teeth or vertebrate from these ancient deposits, but my question is, is it legal? Or, are these fossils technically protected by this law? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boesse Posted June 12, 2016 Share Posted June 12, 2016 Nope, absolutely not. MMPA relates to extant marine mammals only. Different laws do apply to fossils, but it is largely related to collecting access/permission. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmaier Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 When dealing with bureaucrats, it is wise to get your terminology down right so that you don't confuse them. When asked what it is, you stick with the one word definition "fossil". Don't give them an opinion to go down the bureaucratic rabbit hole. I've traveled to a lot of countries, and practicing what you need to say to go through the gauntlet of customs smoothly is a valuable thing to learn. It also helps to WANT to show them the object, because then they will not want to see it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siteseer Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 Tmaier, Right you are. I also recall a few years ago that some Ebay dealers were getting their auctions shut down by Ebay when they had "whale" or "sea lion" in the title even when it also said "fossil" or "fossilized." When dealing with bureaucrats, it is wise to get your terminology down right so that you don't confuse them. When asked what it is, you stick with the one word definition "fossil". Don't give them an opinion to go down the bureaucratic rabbit hole. I've traveled to a lot of countries, and practicing what you need to say to go through the gauntlet of customs smoothly is a valuable thing to learn. It also helps to WANT to show them the object, because then they will not want to see it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wangrui Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 When dealing with bureaucrats, it is wise to get your terminology down right so that you don't confuse them. When asked what it is, you stick with the one word definition "fossil". Don't give them an opinion to go down the bureaucratic rabbit hole. I've traveled to a lot of countries, and practicing what you need to say to go through the gauntlet of customs smoothly is a valuable thing to learn. It also helps to WANT to show them the object, because then they will not want to see it. Please teach what to say and what not to say in different countries! I've had some bad times dealing with people who don't know that fossils are OK to export and import. I even showed them law documents and they wouldn't be convinced. When I told them that it has already become a rock and doesn't count as animal remains, they say then that I can't get it across the border because they couldn't tell whether the rock contains radioactive materials. What should you say a fossil is in that situation to avoid their problems with animals and rocks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmaier Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 Please teach what to say and what not to say in different countries! I've had some bad times dealing with people who don't know that fossils are OK to export and import. I see you are in Hong Kong, and there I would suspect that they are on the look out for illegal fossils, so the word "fossil" would be a bad trigger word. In USA and Europe, that is not such a bad word, except if the origin of the fossil is from the far east or if the fossil looks like it might have come from a museum. In the USA and Europe the bad trigger words are concerning "animal and vegetable materials" (disease containment), and also words that might sound like it is an "antiquity" or "museum quality" object. That is because they are on the look out for antiquity and art objects looted from museum in the near east, and loot funding ISIS. That is a big deal right now. "Fossil I bought at a rock shop" is not on the radar right now. Don't say it is ancient! That sounds like antiquity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wangrui Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 I see you are in Hong Kong, and there I would suspect that they are on the look out for illegal fossils, so the word "fossil" would be a bad trigger word. In USA and Europe, that is not such a bad word, except if the origin of the fossil is from the far east or if the fossil looks like it might have come from a museum. In the USA and Europe the bad trigger words are concerning "animal and vegetable materials" (disease containment), and also words that might sound like it is an "antiquity" or "museum quality" object. That is because they are on the look out for antiquity and art objects looted from museum in the near east, and loot funding ISIS. That is a big deal right now. "Fossil I bought at a rock shop" is not on the radar right now. Don't say it is ancient! That sounds like antiquity. I bought a US fossil on ebay, and used a consolidated shipping service to save international shipping cost. They give you a US address to have your items shipped there, then ship everyone's things together. USPS now charges about $30 for a 1-pound package, but using consolidated shipping it is only $4 plus US shipping. When I filled in my form I wrote that it was fossil, as I've had other packages shipped through the post office with fossil written and never had a problem. Our law doesn't prohibit the import of fossils, but there is the usual no animals or plants or their dead parts. When they said they couldn't ship it, I told them it's just a rock so it wouldn't transmit disease. But then they said if it's a rock then they suspect there's radioactive material in it...I communicated with them for over two weeks, showing them US law about fossils, but they didn't want to hear it. They wouldn't even say what else was bothering them, just that they refused to ship it. So now I can't write fossil or rock, I don't know how I can describe it without being dishonest... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goatinformationist Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 Please teach what to say and what not to say in different countries! I've had some bad times dealing with people who don't know that fossils are OK to export and import. I even showed them law documents and they wouldn't be convinced. When I told them that it has already become a rock and doesn't count as animal remains, they say then that I can't get it across the border because they couldn't tell whether the rock contains radioactive materials. What should you say a fossil is in that situation to avoid their problems with animals and rocks? It sounds like they wanted the remains of cash out of your pockets. Please teach what to say and what not to say in different countries! I've had some bad times dealing with people who don't know that fossils are OK to export and import. I even showed them law documents and they wouldn't be convinced. When I told them that it has already become a rock and doesn't count as animal remains, they say then that I can't get it across the border because they couldn't tell whether the rock contains radioactive materials. What should you say a fossil is in that situation to avoid their problems with animals and rocks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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