SWC owner charged!

just wanted to share this with you guys:
If anyone had dealth with him I just can't believe what his done too do this for our hobby....






Man could face $50K fine for importing coral, clams | Winnipeg | News | Winnipeg Sun

 

That's too bad. I hate it when people take advantage of what mother nature has given us.

 

In no way am I trying to make an excuse for what this dude did but, the people who buy this stuff are just as guilty. Without demand there is no need for the supply.

 

There is a right way (legally importing and abiding by CITES regulations) and there is a wrong way (illegal import with no respect for CITES).

One is done in accordance with CITES and with the nations blessing, the other is not.

I see no issue with importing Scleractinia sp. (how it is described in fisheries) legally under CITES Appendix II permits. They are not just whipped up on a napkin, science and fisheries are involved.

 

I'm a bit upset I supported this company by purchasing an Xtreme 160 cone skimmer a couple of months ago.

 

I would say that 95% of people out there wouldn't know if the coral they were looking at in a display tank was illegal or not. And no way to know it was acquired illegally. ( I know when I'm coral shopping lots of times I have to ask what a certain piece even is ... because I've never seen it before, let alone know its origin)

A lot of what Jason had imported wasn't illegal ... it was however illegal to import without the proper permits.

And the fine actually worked out to $50 000 x 18 violations

Worked out to just shy of $1 million dollars.

He owns SWC on Henderson highway here in Winnipeg

 

I guess the way the article was worded led me to believe that the items he was smuggling were hard to find seahorses, clams and corals that would be only purchased by folks who knew exactly what they were buying (not the run of the mill hobbyist). The comments about the doctored import documents and "to play with the big boys," makes it sound like black market stuff instead of mislabeled packages.

My comments were mentioned because there are folks that seek out rare or exotic protected species and those folks drive the black market. If I misread the article I apologize. When these kinds of things happen regulations can get tighter and make things difficult for legitimate folks.

 

With all the red tape to deal with I wonder if he really was being dodgy or just ignorant.

 

lol I've dealt with the guy on a personal level. Ignorant yes. But in this situation I think he knew exactly what he was doing. He reported local Aquarium society members for buying live rock on ebay from the USA without CITES permits who had all of their LR and Livestock confiscated as a result.

They make it sound mafia style ... or like there was some kind of crazy black market here in Winnipeg, but realistically ... it was just legal pieces imported illegally and sold in his LFS.

And djbonney138 no reason at all to apologize. the only reason I know is the local article had a lot more detail ... and I mean the actions were from 2007. He was finally just convicted, so I mean the locals have known about this guy and his actions for like 5 years and we've heard both sides of the story. He pretends like he just didn't know about the regulations ... but a guy who is so strict about CITES that he is reporting his customers for importing LR without permits ... obviously knows the consequences for such stupid actions.

The shipment that was detained was like 20 000 lbs of LR from indonesia

 

same here i am not trying to make excuses, but do you really think this is the only guy? cuz i sure dont!! he is the one that got caught. and made public cuz he was popular. all i am trying to say is i bet there are many many many more local fish stores that are guilty for this than just this guy!!

i know you all wanna be an

also this was live rock right? so did they just wast it? they should of been shipped it back and put it back in the water or just sold it to the reef community, because it was already harvested and was going to be wasted if not sold.

i am not siding with him or you, more just wondering why this ONE guy is getting all the blam when there is other people doing to?