It is illegal to take conch shells with living organisms from Florida beaches. (Photo: breckeni, Getty Images/iStockphoto) 
 
 A Texas tourist who collected 40 queen conchs seashells from Key West, Florida, is going to jail for 15 days. 
 
 A Florida judge also sentenced Diana Fiscal-Gonzalez of Dallas to serve six months of probation and pay a $500 fine, plus $268 for court costs, for taking 40 queen conchs from the waters that surround Key West, the Miami Herald reports. 
 
 Fiscal-Gonzalez, who pleaded guilty, said she didn't know taking the shells from the beach was illegal. She was planning to give the state-protected mollusks away as gifts. 
 
 Recreational collection of empty seashells is allowed in Florida, but the conch shells Fiscal-Gonzalez collected contained organisms inside. Taking a living queen conch is illegal. Also, killing, mutilating or removing a living queen conch from a shell is prohibited, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission notes. 
 
 More: Florida bucket list: 20 things you have to do in the Sunshine State 
 
 Fiscal-Gonzalez was arrested by an officer from the commission on July 13, 2017, after an anonymous tipster called the agency. Officer John Martino reported seeing three containers full of queen conches soaking in bleach and water when he met with Fiscal-Gonzalez. 
 
 Conch shells are an important part of Florida Keys culture. Native-born islanders are called Conchs, and the Keys are nicknamed the Conch Republic. Empty conch shells, which produce a unique sound when blown, have also been used as signaling devices in the Florida Keys for centuries. 
 
 Follow Ashley May on Twitter: @AshleyMayTweets 
 
 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2uwcuFE ||||| Former Bucs defensive tackle Warren Sapp, a regular on charter fishing trips in his retirement these days, was bitten in the arm by a shark while lobstering on a charter based out of Marathon in the Florida Keys. 
 
 "It's simple," charter captain Jack Carlson wrote via text message while still cleaning up Wednesday afternoon. "He was lobstering with me and a shark bit Sapp while he was grabbing the lobster. He's OK." 
 
 Carlson's charter, Two Conchs, posted a photo to Instagram with a photo of a deep, bloody gash to Sapp's arm. "Warren Sapp attacked by a shark while lobstering," he wrote, adding the hashtag #epicbattle. "The shark wanted the lobster just as bad as Sapp," he later wrote on Instagram. "Sapp got the lobster and the Shark got his lick in too." 
 
 Carlson said by phone he was fishing on Florida Bay on Wednesday, about seven miles out from Marathon in 9 feet of water. Sapp was reached for a lobster that a shark -- one witness thought it was a small nurse shark, perhaps four feet long -- also wanted. 
 
 "The sharks hang around those lobster holes, because they feed on the lobster as well," Carlson said. 
 
 Carlson said Sapp "may need stitches" for the injury -- to the inside of his left forearm, near the elbow -- but that he kept fishing. "We bandaged it up, put some gauze on there, some black electrical tape and hit a couple more spots, then headed in," Carlson said. 
 
 Sapp, now a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Bucs' Ring of Honor, posted a photo on Instagram earlier Wednesday showing him going out lobstering with Two Conchs and Carlson. He spoke briefly with the Times by phone Wednesday before abruptly hanging up.
– A tourist in Florida has been sentenced to 15 days jail time after she says she thought she was simply collecting sea shells. Per the Miami Herald, Diana Fiscal-Gonzalez was caught after harvesting dozens of queen conchs from the coast of Key West. Fiscal-Gonzalez, who was visiting from Texas, was reportedly arrested July 13 by a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer following a tip. Fiscal-Gonzalez had a reported 40 conch shells in a plastic container. She told authorities she didn't know it was illegal to collect the live creatures in the state of Florida. A judge sentenced her to jail, anyway, as well as to six months probation. Fiscal-Gonzalez will have to pay a $500 fine as well as $268 in court costs, according to USA Today. The conch has been a protected species in Florida since the 1970s, when over-harvesting led to a steep decline in their population in the region. In the Florida Keys, the conch is especially beloved. Floridians native to the stretch of islands refer to themselves as conchs and Key West High School's mascot is the endearingly named Fighting Conch. An FWC officer said most of the conchs Fiscal-Gonzalez took were still alive and returned to the water following her arrest.