Recently, I was on a business trip and found some fish that I just had to have. I went ahead and purchased them and flew them home with me. In a thread under the Crenicichla section I mentioned this and have received a ton of PM's asking how I did it.
I either pack them in my check-in luggage with my clothes if it is just a bag or two, or as in the case of this last trip where I had 4 bags of fish, I just bought an insulated lunch box/cooler and taped them up inside and put a name tag on it like you would with any other piece of luggage.
If you think this will draw attention to yourself look around at some of the **** that people check in as luggage when flying the next time you're at the airport. You'll be amazed. An ice chest is pretty mundane.
The airlines don't care what's in there as long as it isn't a bomb. They aren't the ones checking the luggage. The NTSA is and they could care less if you have a bag of wiggling fish. As long as it doesn't explode it's all good. This last trip they didn't even look twice at the cooler let alone ask what was in it. They sat it on the conveyor belt and off it went.
The only concern I may have is if you were to bring fish in from Canada. If the FWS catches them you might be in a bit of trouble. I think the worst that would happen though is that the fish would be confiscated.
You may find that you get more questions at some of the larger, international airports like JFK. With that said I was flying out of LAX which is pretty tight on it's security. Perhaps if I was headed cross country it would have been more problematic.
Thinking back, about a year ago I was in Phoenix, AZ. There was a restaurant there with awesome food that I wanted my wife to try. On my last day, I bought food for 5, put it in a 48 quart ice chest with ice packs and headed off to the airport. I didn't know if they'd have to check it before I sealed it shut and taped it up so I went prepared with a roll of duct tape. When I got there the lady at the check-in counter asked me out of curiosity what was in it. She about laughed her ass off when I told her burritos, chips & salsa (she agreed that they were damn good burritos). She told me to go ahead and tape it up and that if the NTSA guys needed to look inside they'd cut the tape, check it out and then re-tape the cooler for me.
All in all, I don't think a few bags of fish in an ice chest are really high on their priority list and I'll continue the practice until some terrorist figures out how to detonate cichlids.
I either pack them in my check-in luggage with my clothes if it is just a bag or two, or as in the case of this last trip where I had 4 bags of fish, I just bought an insulated lunch box/cooler and taped them up inside and put a name tag on it like you would with any other piece of luggage.
If you think this will draw attention to yourself look around at some of the **** that people check in as luggage when flying the next time you're at the airport. You'll be amazed. An ice chest is pretty mundane.
The airlines don't care what's in there as long as it isn't a bomb. They aren't the ones checking the luggage. The NTSA is and they could care less if you have a bag of wiggling fish. As long as it doesn't explode it's all good. This last trip they didn't even look twice at the cooler let alone ask what was in it. They sat it on the conveyor belt and off it went.
The only concern I may have is if you were to bring fish in from Canada. If the FWS catches them you might be in a bit of trouble. I think the worst that would happen though is that the fish would be confiscated.
You may find that you get more questions at some of the larger, international airports like JFK. With that said I was flying out of LAX which is pretty tight on it's security. Perhaps if I was headed cross country it would have been more problematic.
Thinking back, about a year ago I was in Phoenix, AZ. There was a restaurant there with awesome food that I wanted my wife to try. On my last day, I bought food for 5, put it in a 48 quart ice chest with ice packs and headed off to the airport. I didn't know if they'd have to check it before I sealed it shut and taped it up so I went prepared with a roll of duct tape. When I got there the lady at the check-in counter asked me out of curiosity what was in it. She about laughed her ass off when I told her burritos, chips & salsa (she agreed that they were damn good burritos). She told me to go ahead and tape it up and that if the NTSA guys needed to look inside they'd cut the tape, check it out and then re-tape the cooler for me.
All in all, I don't think a few bags of fish in an ice chest are really high on their priority list and I'll continue the practice until some terrorist figures out how to detonate cichlids.
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