Christine Dobby Staff Reporter
Provincial officials suspect some fish importers are draining tanks of water and suffocating Asian carp before they cross the border in an attempt to keep them fresh for markets in Toronto.
A change in the law in 2005 made the possession of live invasive fish species illegal in Ontario. Those bringing fish like bighead, grass, black and silver carp into the province must ensure their cargo is dead. So the water is usually drained from tanks on the trucks transporting them sometime before crossing the border, officials say.
But as three recent border incidents have shown, the hearty fish don’t always die quickly.
“They’re making the declaration saying the fish are dead, but when they get pulled in, the fish are flopping, the gill plates are moving and they’re actually breathing,” said Sean Insley, a conservation officer with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.
Sweetwater Springs Fish Farm, an Indiana-based company, was slapped with a $20,000 fine on Monday after the latest in a string of live fish busts at the border.
Companies are bringing the fish to Canada from as far away as Arkansas. The demand comes mostly from Asian consumers, Insley. The longer the fish are kept alive, the more valuable they are, he added.
“We don’t know if their intent is to leave them alive as long as possible, so they’re as fresh as possible when they get to Toronto, or if it’s just a very hearty fish and these guys aren’t giving themselves travel time long enough to kill these fish,” he said.
Asian carp can survive out of water for up to 48 hours, Insley said.
The February seizure at the Sarnia border of 6,000 pounds of live bighead carp — about 1,500 of the three- to four-pound fish — is the third incident since November 2010, said Insley.
A Markham fish importer was ordered to pay $50,000 on March 2 after more than 4,000 pounds of live bighead and grass carp were seized from three tanks in the back of his truck at the Windsor border in November. It was not his first offence: the same importer was fined $40,000 for a similar incident in 2006.
A third truck was stopped at the Sarnia border with 6,000 pounds of fish in January. The charges in that case are still pending.
When the ministry seizes fish in such cases, they use an icing technique and kill them. The dead fish are then sold to a company that brings them to market in Toronto, Insley said. The profits are paid into court and if the case is successful, the money goes into a special purpose account for the ministry.
http://www.thestar.c...-live-carp-fine
Does anyone else think if Canada would really be serious about the importation of exotics they'd ban the importation of Asian carp altogether? But then it looks like they have a good thing going double dipping in revenue both from the fines and reselling the carp. What happens if one of these guys drains a tank near a stream somewhere and one gets out the drain? I haul fish myself (never Asian Carp) and know that could happen with a 6 or 8 inch gate value drain if a hauler wasn't careful.
Edited by az9, 18 March 2011 - 09:32 PM.
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