More smuggling stories...

[mkirda]

http://news.inq7.net/nation/index.php?i ... y_id=51511

 

[nanocat]

Hmmmm

Trio said the piranhas intercepted at the NAIA were “very active, with the small ones more ferocious,” when they arrived at the NAIA at around 4:30 p.m. on Saturday.

If it is any consolation to Trio, the 34 piranhas which came in a shipment from Amsterdam last weekend are now floating dead in their containers in the cargo area of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

Seems like someone at NAIA (such as Fisheries Quarantine Service (FQS) chief Felipe Santamaria) just let these fish die? :?:

 

[clarionreef]

And for the reef folks who have felt out of the loop when it comes to smuggling livestock...fear not.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service seems to have discovered the routine smuggling/shipping of rare corals in the overnite express services from other countries.
I just had the pleasure of helping ID some rare acans...for USFWS here in the bay area.
They were nice but the 'clarion-like' silly money they bring is hard to understand. Still, thats what drives shippers of single boxes thru the mail to do this...once again doing an end-run around the conventional and leagl process.
"If the smugglers can get em, why not us"...is the point.

We will have to ship em to a public aquarium as is the procedure....where they have to hold em for several months before owning them. This allows the case to go thru its process it appears.
We need them outta here as the temptation for a customer to try and switch and sub one for a favia and then try to buy it could lead to trouble.
Steve
So, if anyone ever asks if we can get jumbo red acanthastreas ...I can say honestly..."Sure, doesn't everyone?".

 

[JT]

Acanthastrea have run their course, what's going to be the next fad coral?

 

[Anonymous]

Acanthastrea have run their course, what's going to be the next fad coral?

Wasn't acans this time, it was micros, dendrophylia and a few other fairly common ones. Wish I had a camera at the time, then I could simply post you a pick of them They weren't all that hard for a coral geek to ID