Officials fined more than 40 tourists up to $3,000 each for stealing sand from an Italian island's protected beaches

• Italian police on Saturday seized 220 pounds of sand that tourists took from a protected beach.
• It's illegal to remove Sardinia's bright-white sand because it disrupts the ecosystem.
• Police issued fines between $600 and $3,650 to 41 people who stole the sand, according to CNN.

On Sardinia, an island off the coast of Italy, sand is valuable - and illegal to bring home.

In recent days, Italian police seized more than 220 pounds of sand, shells, and rocks that tourists collected for souvenirs, according to the Associated Press. The shores of Sardinia are protected, and in 2017, officials made it illegal for people to take home the beaches' sand, as Sky News reported.

Police in Italy issued fines to 41 people who took the sand earlier in the week, and the fines ranged from $600 to $3,650 (between €500 to €3,000), according to CNN.

The confiscated sand was returned to the shore earlier this week, the Guardia di Finanza, Italy's finance police, said in a statement obtained by CNN.

According to CNN, the majority of the seizes took place at Olbia Costa Smeralda Airport, where customs police regularly check departing travelers' belongings.

Others were found boarding ferries, according to the AP, and some people were tracked down on e-commerce sites where the sand was being sold, CNN reported.

The sand is a popular - albeit illegal - souvenir for tourists. Sardinia's sand is bright white and tinted pink, making it stand apart from other shores and considered a popular keepsake for some visitors, according to CNN.

When visitors collect sand from the island's beaches, it puts the local ecosystems at risk, CNN reported in 2019.

Since officials made it illegal in 2017 to steal Sardinia's sand, numerous tourists have faced fines and threats of jail time. In September 2020, a French tourist who attempted to leave Sardinia with four pounds of sand packed in his suitcase was caught and given a 1,000 euro fine, according to CNN.

In 2019, a French couple was threatened with jail time when they boarded a ferry with 88 pounds of sand, CNN also reported.

"The people of Sardinia are very angry with tourists that steal shells and sand because it's a theft (from) future generations that also puts at risk a delicate environment," an officer told CNN in 2019.