The airports of Sardinia for the year confiscated more than ten tons of sand that the tourists tried to take as a souvenir, RIA Novosti reports with reference to activists of the public Association “Stolen and looted Sardinia.”

“Only three airports of Sardinia in the past year was confiscated more than ten tons of sand, pebbles, and shells, stolen on the island,” said representatives of the Association. “About six tons were seized at the airport of Cagliari, and four tons in Olbia and Alghero. However, these numbers do not reflect all losses incurred by our beaches. This is only a small part of it.”

Only in Sardinia, there are more than 250 beaches, which stretches more than fifteen hundred kilometers. For many years tourists quietly gathered their favorite “seafood” and took them home.

In 2015, Sardinian environmental activists have begun to spread in social networks photo & video “thieves of sand,” with the result that they were able to draw to this problem the attention of the wide public.

In 2017, the Regional Council of Sardinia introduced in the local legislation providing for an administrative penalty for illegal removal of sand and shells from beaches in size from 500 to three thousand euros.