Fishkeeping - Carib Sea Reef Rock

Last I heard is they gavce allth elive rock to some organization and
its just laying there in the storage container. Thats really smart. I
mean its already harvested, and its prone to spoiling or dying, so why
waste it. Seems only a few organizations will benefit, who really doe
snot need it anyhow or the stuff will eventually get dumped back in
the ocean.

I guess with what they pay for the stuff including shipping is dirt
cheap since they did not try and keep possession of it.....to bad its
not the same story in lfs. For what they paid in fines and penalty
plus the loss of rock and shiping etc I just can ot fathom how it
would not have been worth their while to prove it was an oversight.

I just hate they think more of their profits than of coral reefs and
destruction doing what they do. Original post has been archieved on
thr DOJ website somewhere, butbelow is the article in a nut shell.

FORT PIERCE COMPANY AND ITS PRESIDENT PLEAD GUILTY AND ARE SENTENCED
FOR ILLEGALLY IMPORTING CORAL ROCK INTO THE UNITED STATES

November 8, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District
of Florida, Eddie McKissick, Resident Agent in Charge, U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service, Hal Robbins, Special Agent in Charge, NOAA Fisheries
Office of Law Enforcement, Southeast Division, and Jesus Torres,
Special Agent in Charge, Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
announced that Carib Sea, Inc., a Fort Pierce-based aquarium supply
company, and Richard Greenfield, 46, of Fort Pierce, pled guilty and
were sentenced in federal District Court on November 7, 2006, in
connection with the illegal importation of more than 42,000 pounds of
protected coral rock from Haiti to the United States. Both defendants
were charged in connection with a shipment that arrived in March 2006,
contrary to the laws of the United States and an international treaty
intended to protect threatened and endangered species of wildlife, all
in violation of the federal Lacey Act, Title 16, United States Code,
Sections 3372 and 3373.
United States District Court Judge Marcia G. Cooke accepted the guilty
pleas of the two defendants and proceeded to immediate sentencing.
Carib Sea, Inc. was sentenced to a three year period of
court-supervised probation and ordered to make a $25,000 community
service payment to the South Florida National Park Trust to assist in
funding and enhancing the existing Coral Nursery Program in Biscayne
National Park.
Richard Greenfield was also placed on three years probation, and
ordered to pay a criminal fine in the amount of $25,000. Additionally,
the defendants were held jointly liable for storage and transportation
costs exceeding $10,000 which related to the March 2006 seizure and
approximately 40,000 pounds of coral rock found and seized by the
government at the company’s business location. The defendants are also
obligated to publish a notice in three publications related to the
aquarium trade, explaining their violation of law and the applicable
requirements of CITES and U.S. regulations.
The coral rock involved in this matter, with a market value of
approximately $75,000, is being transferred to a non-profit research
institution, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, to avoid its use
in commerce.
According to the Information filed in this matter and a statement of
facts presented in Court, in March 2006, the defendants were involved
in the importation of a cargo-container load of coral rock from Haiti.
Under a convention known as “CITES,” the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, more than 150
countries have banded together to provide protection to a variety of
species in danger of imminent extinction, or which may become so, if
trade in their specimens is not carefully regulated. That protection
extends to all coral rock, which is an invertebrate within the phylum
coelenterate. To legally import such specimens into the United States,
the importer must, among other requirements, obtain and present to the
Fish & Wildlife Service a valid foreign export permit from the country
of origin, or if the country of origin is not a CITES member, such as
Haiti, a corresponding document described in U.S. regulations. Neither
of the defendants, or their Haitian supplier, possessed or presented
the appropriate documentation for the coral in this case at the time
of importation
Coral reef destruction has been the subject of intense debate at the
meetings of the parties to CITES. Loss of reef habitat, which is one
of the most productive and diverse ecosystems, is a world-wide
concern. As nurseries for marine species of commercial value, as well
as a source of income from recreational fishing and eco-tourists, and
a protective barrier for coastlines, a significant effort is underway
to preserve the existing reef structures and reverse their decline.
Mr. Acosta commended the coordinated investigative efforts of the Fish
& Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and
Immigration & Customs Enforcement, which brought the matter to a
successful conclusion. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant
United States Attorneys Thomas Watts-FitzGerald.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United
States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information
may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern
District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on
http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
Technical comments about this website can be e-mailed to the
Webmaster. PLEASE NOTE: The United States Attorney's Office does not
respond to non-technical inquiries made to this website. If you wish
to make a request for information, you may contact our office at
305-961-9001, or you may send a written inquiry to the United States
Attorney's Office, Southern District of Florida, 99 NE 4th Street,
Miami, Fl. 33132.

My thoughts:

I've never done business with Carib Sea because they hold an illegal
monopoly on Aragonite sand in America. This seals the deal on my
feelings of the company and the owners. Its one major reason I use
locally collected sands.

On Sat, 10 Feb 2007 20:26:58 GMT, Wayne Sallee
wrote:

hehehe, they really didn't try to smuggle it into
the country. The product was their famous "reef
bones". But they were missing important export
papers on that shipment. They pleaded guilty instead
of going through all the trouble of trying to prove
that it was just an oversight.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets

KurtG wrote on 1/31/2007 6:02 PM:
Tristan wrote:
I wonder what ever happened to Carib Sea's 40000, or was it 70,000# of
live rock they had tried to smuggle into the country and got caught
and had it confiscated....Seems it came from Haiti or the Caribean
area...

That's just wrong.

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