What! No way we've discussed this a million times before, they are illegal in the USA. They're on CITES now, only the ones that were here back in the 70's were grandfathered in and they are all long gone so any that are here now, must have been illegally imported because they weren't captive bred in the USA.
That's the current story. But the USA has a new president. Many hate him, many love him. Let's PLEASE not discuss that. Let's discuss this:
https://www.yahoo.com/digest/20170117/gop-makes-plans-invalidate-endangered-species-act-00837573
This is a news story covered by many new outlets. I chose yahoo randomly. The current US administration is signing executive orders and changing laws rapidly everyday. They plan to next invalidate the endangered species act and they may do it soon. They will do it before they have a replacement ready similar to their plan with repealing the Affordable Care Act AKA Obamacare. This means a lot of things! This means that many areas will be opened to drilling and lumber harvesting, there may be limits on the number of species that can be protected. This means that certain conservation efforts will cease and lose funding. this could mean a lot of potentially bad things for animal loving people like us.
But there is a small detail. The Endangered Species Act of 1973 regulates our compliance with something. That something is CITES. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. This agreement between 175 nations is what regulates asian arowanas and many other endangered species.
IF the Endangered species act is repealed there will be no law left in place to force compliance with CITES.
If you take a look at this sheet
https://www.fws.gov/endangered/esa-library/pdf/ESA_basics.pdf from the US Fish Wildlife Service you will see near the bottom right the following:
"The ESA also implements U.S.
participation in the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered
Species of Wild Fauna and Flora
(CITES), a 175-nation agreement
designed to prevent species from
becoming endangered or extinct due to
international trade. Except as allowed
by permit, CITES prohibits importing
or exporting species listed on its three
appendices. A species may require a
permit under the ESA, CITES, or both"
So should the Endangered Species Act be repealed as it looks likely that it will. Until they issue a replacement for the law there may be nothing legal to enforce the ban on asian arowana. Unless a specific state has a law banning them since we are no longer in compliance with or even recognizing CITES from a legal perspective. Or if there are other laws I'm overlooking tying us to compliance or listing those species specifically. I sent an email to my business attorney asking him what he thinks. Not his area of expertise but he will hopefully be able to point me in the right direction.
NOW...let us debate the legality and probability of this so we can be prepared. Because IF they become legal for a window of time, then made illegal again by later legislation or administration there may be a golden opportunity here for us in respect to owning these species legally in the USA. I for one will enthusiastically support anyone who can further the research on this topic, and the means to make it happen once the laws are repealed. This may be a window, a tiny legal window but it's possible. The best lead we've have in decades.
Anybody here an expert on this?!
