Man arrested for allegedly smuggling Arowana in a bag around his neck into Adelaide

[jaws7777]

Some states even murder . Put him in “high power” with El Chapo and other cartel leaders and throw away the keys! This BAD BAD man imported a legally farmed Asian arowana illegally!!

Lmao i wonder what half these purists would do alone for 10 minutes with a REAL criminal.

 

[islandguy11]

Daaammnn, thats insane, 10yrs in prison for a fish

For sure, though I'd be kind of surprised to see him actually do time for it, I'd bet he's only fined (and probably deported), but it will be interesting to see what happens, I hope local news will follow up on the case.

 

[Galantspeedz]

I would guess he would rather go to jail in lieu of paying the fine

 

[Hendre]

This is what people get. I think logistically it's difficult to send an arowana back, although I don't get why they had to put it down. Send it to a research institute perhaps. Sad story

 

[Ogertron3000]

That's the way it is here, you get a few cases like this a year. Always the animal is killed and never any exceptions, I doubt he will get 10 years but he will do a bit of time. Not sure how the fine will go. It's not just the actual fish they are worried about but all the pathogens/viruses etc. it could be carrying.
A few years back a woman got an RTC through and had it in her house which apparently was full of tanks, someone tipped off the authorities and after the inevitable raid by the authorities every fish she had was euthanised. I will post a link to the story if I can find it as she had multiple tanks in every room in the house. The police were tripping on how she even had tanks in the bathroom and toilet, said she "seemed obsessed"
You can get big $ for an illegal import fish here if you can get it through customs but if you get caught they will give it to you hard.

 

[krichardson]

That's the way it is here, you get a few cases like this a year. Always the animal is killed and never any exceptions, I doubt he will get 10 years but he will do a bit of time. Not sure how the fine will go. It's not just the actual fish they are worried about but all the pathogens/viruses etc. it could be carrying.
A few years back a woman got an RTC through and had it in her house which apparently was full of tanks, someone tipped off the authorities and after the inevitable raid by the authorities every fish she had was euthanised. I will post a link to the story if I can find it as she had multiple tanks in every room in the house. The police were tripping on how she even had tanks in the bathroom and toilet, said she "seemed obsessed"
You can get big $ for an illegal import fish here if you can get it through customs but if you get caught they will give it to you hard.

I would like to see that article,sounds like the woman was an extreme fish hoarder and possibly with mental issues.I have heard of the high prices of aquarium fish that are legal to own there so I can imagine how much money such an arowana would fetch.

 

[jaws7777]

That's the way it is here, you get a few cases like this a year. Always the animal is killed and never any exceptions, I doubt he will get 10 years but he will do a bit of time. Not sure how the fine will go. It's not just the actual fish they are worried about but all the pathogens/viruses etc. it could be carrying.
A few years back a woman got an RTC through and had it in her house which apparently was full of tanks, someone tipped off the authorities and after the inevitable raid by the authorities every fish she had was euthanised. I will post a link to the story if I can find it as she had multiple tanks in every room in the house. The police were tripping on how she even had tanks in the bathroom and toilet, said she "seemed obsessed"
You can get big $ for an illegal import fish here if you can get it through customs but if you get caught they will give it to you hard.

I can understand the pathogens and invasive aspect of this but most of these fish are grown in farms. I watched a vid of an aro farm that had close to 1000 breeding ponds.

Are they banned in your area because of a potential invasive threat they pose to the aussie aros ? That makes sense to me

 

[Hendre]

I believe because of their CITES listing, any that were present at the time could stay until they passed. That's that.

 

[Ogertron3000]

Collectors feed bizarre smuggling escapades

www.theage.com.au

Here's the link to the story, it's from one of the more sensible newspapers so doesn't show the more bizzare aspects of the story but gives a good overview of the authorities attitudes to this sort of thing and the lengths people go through to try to sneak the fish in.

 

[Ogertron3000]

I

I can understand the pathogens and invasive aspect of this but most of these fish are grown in farms. I watched a vid of an aro farm that had close to 1000 breeding ponds.

Are they banned in your area because of a potential invasive threat they pose to the aussie aros ? That makes sense to me

I think it's mainly down to the pathogens and microbe side of things as the first priority then the invasive side would be 2nd priority. Where I live carp are the biggest issue. In the warmer States an arowana have a much better chance of survival if released but if you've paid $10 grand or gone to the hassle of smuggling it in I doubt you would be tossing it into a river.
Also I've seen some videos of asian fish farms and some of them don't look too clean and very overcrowded I imagine they would have lots of parasites and diseases running rampant through them , possibly with some strong resistance to antibiotics and other medications.