It illegal of course....
and to arrive in the US w/ them is as well w/out a CITES permit.
Whatever you do...do not land in LA without legal documents because if you do...you make get to meet Inspector Larry Strong of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Believe me...you won't like it.
In Indo there are no CITES permits w/out a long expensive process for rich Indonesian citizens who know how to play the game and grease the wheels.
In other words, the only way is to buy from a shipper and have the shipper process the shipment out to America.
If no CITES permits are available for tridacnas at the time...then no clams are possible.
The whole thing rests in the how you run a gauntlet that not even Indonesians can break-thru...except for a few wealthy ones.
Americans cannot go pick up a few clams legally no more then Japanese hobbyists can come here and pick up some American crocodile babies or Acro. palmatas from Florida to take back with them.
Imagining these things counts for little. The contacts and relationships are everything.
If you lived there...its just a don't ask don't tell thing. Bali and Lombok authorities have turned a blind eye to cyanide fishing all their careers...so a few clams for your home tank mean nothing.
Clams are butchered everywhere that the trade is prohibited!
Conservation is often for foreigners.
In Tonga for example, there is great care to control wild clam collecting for export...in fact, its prohibited...as hundreds of big maximas are sold every day on the wharf for cheap food.
