Tuesday, February 4, 2014

A Fishy Story

I heard this story on the radio and several details left me scratching my head. A New York man,(some reports state his age as 71,but others fix his age at 66) illegally smuggled 40,000 piranhas into New York. Piranhas are illegal in most states as they are flesh eaters,and the man being a tropical fish salesman by trade should have known that. My first problem with the story is he was importing them from Hong Kong and they are native to South America. It seems like even if they were being raised in Hong Kong the survival rate of shipping them that distance,never mind the cost of shipping,that he should have been selling them for more than the $1. per fish that he was reportedly asking. I haven't priced tropical fish recently,but even your small silver tetras (their shipping documents identified them as tetras) sell for more that $1 a fish. Several things about this story don't add up...oh,did I mention that only 850 of the fish were recovered? So before you jump head first into your local lake or river you may want to test the water with a toe first!
Joel Rakower pleaded guilty Wednesday to smuggling nearly 40,000 piranhas into the United States.

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