CaribSea Busted for Illegal Importing!

[Travis L. Stevens]

Read more about it here: http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic50823-9-1.aspx

Abstract

NEWS RELEASE: U.S. Department of Justice United States Attorney Southern
District of Florida 99 N.E. 4 Street Miami, FL 33132 (305) 961-9001
November 7, 2006

FORT PIERCE COMPANY AND PRESIDENT PLEAD GUILTY
AND ARE SENTENCED FOR ILLEGALLY IMPORTING
CORAL ROCK INTO THE UNITED STATES

R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern
District of Florida, Eddie McKissick, Resident Agent in Charge, U.S.
Fish & Wildlife Service, Hal Robbins, Special Agent in Charge, NOAA
Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement, Southeast Division, and Jesus
Torres, Special Agent in Charge, Immigration & Customs Enforcement,
announced today that Carib Sea, Inc., a Fort Pierce based aquarium
supply company, and Richard Greenfield, 46, of Fort Pierce, pled guilty
and were sentenced in Miami federal District Court in connection with
the illegal importation of more than 42,000 pounds of protected coral
rock from Haiti to the United States. Both defendants were charged in
connection with a shipment that arrived in March 2006, contrary to the
laws of the United States and an international treaty intended to
protect threatened and endangered species of wildlife, all in violation
of the federal Lacey Act, Title 16, United States Code, Sections 3372
and 3373.

United States District Court Judge Marcia G. Cooke accepted the
guilty pleas of the two defendants and proceeded to immediate
sentencing. Carib Sea, Inc. was sentenced to a three year period of
court-supervised probation and ordered to make a $25,000 community
service payment to the South Florida National Park Trust to assist in
funding and enhancing the existing Coral Nursery Program in Biscayne
National Park; a program operating to increase scientific understanding
of coral growth with specific application to restoration and
enhancement
of coral reefs degraded by human activity and other causes by culturing
a supply of hard and soft corals for translocation into damaged sites.

Richard Greenfield was also placed on three years probation, and
ordered to pay a criminal fine in the amount of $25,000. Additionally,
the defendants were held jointly liable for storage and transportation
costs exceeding $10,000 which related to the March 2006 seizure and
approximately 40,000 pounds of coral rock found and seized by the
government at the company’s business location. The coral rock involved
in this matter, with a market value of approximately $75,000, is being
transferred to a non-profit research institution, Harbor Branch
Oceanographic Institute to avoid its being entered into commercial
commerce. The defendants are also obligated to publish a notice in
three
publications related to the aquarium trade, explaining their violation
of law and the applicable requirements of CITES and U.S. regulations.

According to the Information filed in this matter and a statement
of facts presented in Court, in March 2006, the defendants were
involved
in the importation of a cargo-container load of coral rock from Haiti.
Under a convention known as “CITES” - the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, more than 150
countries have banded together to provide protection to a variety of
species in danger of imminent extinction, or which may become so, if
trade in their specimens is not carefully regulated. That protection
extends to all coral rock, which is an invertebrate within the phylum
coelenterate. To legally import such specimens into the United States,
the importer must, among other requirements, obtain and present to the
Fish & Wildlife Service a valid foreign export permit from the country
of origin, or if the country of origin is not a CITES member, such as
Haiti, a corresponding document described in U.S. regulations. Neither
of the defendants, or their Haitian supplier, possessed or presented
the
appropriate documentation for the coral in this case at the time of
importation

Coral reef destruction has been the subject of intense debate at
the meetings of the parties to CITES. Loss of reef habitat, which is
one
of the most productive and diverse ecosystems, is a world-wide concern.
As nurseries for marine species of commercial value, as well as a
source
of income from recreational fishing and eco-tourists, and a protective
barrier for coastlines, a significant effort is underway to preserve
the
existing reef structures and reverse their decline.

Mr. Acosta commended the coordinated investigative efforts of the
U.S.
Fish & Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and
Immigration & Customs Enforcement, which brought the matter to a
successful conclusion. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant
United
States Attorneys Thomas Watts-FitzGerald.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the
United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at
www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be
found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of
Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.

Tom R. MacKenzie
Chief, Media Relations
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Southeast Region
404-679-7291 Fax:404-679-7286 Cell: 678-296-6400
http://www.fws.gov/southeast

 

[Sk8r]

Travis, did you note the Lounge thread, where a reefer handling Haitian rock was stung by fire sponge, with serious complications?

I'd sure want to be sure where rock comes from, and I think among items traded on RC, it might be really a good idea to encourage reefers to sell off or donate spare rock rather than letting it die. I got that kind of rock to start with and it was a great thing. I do know that people talk about tossing rock or dead corals, and it is one thing the hobby could do to try to slow down this kind of activity.

 

[kiknchikn]

It's truly disturbing to me how small the fines are. I like what they're doing with the siezed rocks though.

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

Possibly. Have a link to that thread?

No offense, but where did the talk about letting live rock become dead rock come from?

 

[Declevis]

Found this reply to the original on MD forum.



October 9th, 2006 - CaribSea Inc. is an enthusiastic supporter of coral reef conservation and has, over the years, contributed substantial monetary and material support to living coral research and captive propagation programs in the public, academic and private sectors. CaribSea Inc. imports coral rock as an ecologically minded alternative to ornamental corals and live rock from the ocean. Coral rock is gathered on dry land or mined from pits and does not harm living corals or coral reefs. However, coral rock does fall under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and requires proper permitting for importation. CaribSea Inc., and Richard Greenfield individually have each pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge in association with a shipment of coral rock in March of this year that was not permitted properly. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has since assisted CaribSea Inc.in obtaining the proper import and export permits.

Tony Wagner
Sales Manager
CaribSea, Inc.

Sounds like the whole thing was over a permit / paperwork issue.

 

[captbunzo]

(In the voice of Paul Harvey)

And now, the rest of the story..... Quotes from Anthony Calfo over in MD (he actually called the company).

To all - the the above story/issue re: Carib Sea did not make sense to me at face value - the company is so big, so industry friendly... and so smart, etc

So I talked to the company directly for the skinny on it... turns out the matter is as suspected (administrative oversight... non-nefarious, and rather minor IMO):

The gist of it from ems:

------------------------------

The product was our reef bones. It is dead live rock, and a common construction material in Haiti and many other tropical islands. It was a nice looking product when we released it several years back... as I am sure you are aware, all of the laws, and permits for these various resources can be very confusing. We simply did not have the proper permit in place for one container of product of the several we had brought in over the last few years. We now have the correct permit. It’s funny a simple $100 permit cost us upwards of a quarter of a million dollars in fines, legal fees, storage fees, and the product they kept.

Fortunately we learned a lot from this experience. We will continue on our path, helping and donating time, money, and product to research groups and conservation efforts such as our program with the Blue Iguana Recovery Program (www.blueiguana.ky) to help save the Blue Iguana.

People tend to overlook anything good, and focus on the size of the fine and company name.

And a second post:

so the summary is... much like the unclear (and often unknown by officers themselves) Fish and Wildlife regs that badly jamb up LFS owners importing (and kill animals for the vague paper recs) - Caribsea's oversight was a documentation issue on one among several legal shipments. And their precedent was all legal shipments too.

This reminds me of the thousands (I'm not kidding) of clams that F&W has killed by delaying shipments of AQUACULTURED clams because the import docs did not list the gravel(!) that was stuck under the clamshell (farmers use local aggregate to sometimes grow baby clams).

This is beurocracy folks... not poaching. Caribsea is a good company... please give them a break.

(and for my name/personality... let me state that I have never taken so much as a free sample at a tradeshow or otherwise from this company. My opinion here is unbiased)

 

[kiknchikn]

I have a hard time believing it was a mere "permit / paperwork issue" or they would have gotten a slap on the wrist (although I'd argue those fines are a slap on the wrist if they've gotten away with it a few times before getting caught). It sounds more like they knowingly did something illegal to me.

That's just my opinion though, and we all know what opinions are like =)

I look forward to seeing more about what really happened. Hopefully it really was just an honest mistake and they are as good of a company as people say they are.

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

Whether someone takes the article as something bad or as a slap in the face to CaribSea is something I cannot help, but let me state for the record that I was posting this for information. It just goes to show you that not only are individuals persecuted for breaking laws that are placed on reefs, but big name companies are as well.

For the sake of CaribSea, I truly hope that it was a documentation flub. If so, it really sucks that they've had to endure all of that.