# Carib Sea Inc Busted



## harif87 (Jun 5, 2006)

I found this article this morning. Those bastards......

NEWS RELEASE: U.S. Department of Justice United States Attorney Southern 
District of Florida 99 N.E. 4 Street Miami, FL 33132 (305) 961-9001 
November 7, 2006 

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

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 & Customs Enforcement, announced today that Carib Sea, Inc., a Fort Pierce based aquarium supply company, and Richard Greenfield, 46, of Fort Pierce, pled guilty and were sentenced in Miami federal District Court 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; a program operating to increase scientific understanding of coral growth with specific application to restoration and enhancement of coral reefs degraded by human activity and other causes by culturing a supply of hard and soft corals for translocation into damaged sites. 

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 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 being entered into commercial commerce. 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. 

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 U.S. 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 
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 www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.go.



The floor is open for comments.


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## i have crabs (Apr 30, 2006)

so no more reef rock or reef bones for sale i take it. what about the sand they sell i wonder.


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## Ice (Sep 25, 2006)

Well looks like somebody got caught with his hands in the cookie jar ! Sad news but stupidity on their part !


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## harif87 (Jun 5, 2006)

I think its really sad that people so deep in the hobby dont even respect the source of their enjoyment.


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## Bear (Jun 8, 2006)

its not a hobby to them, its a source of income


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## Ice (Sep 25, 2006)

I agree with Bear. Some people would do anything to make a profit, even in the expense of violating the law and aquiring protected rocks & corals illegally.


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

well that sucks... I always enjoyed their sand...


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## Puffer Pita (Jun 16, 2006)

Personally I won't be purchasing any of their products in the future.


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## aaa (Jan 19, 2005)

i am not surprise at all. they are in the business for profit, not as a hobby. why would they give a crap about the environment when they see $$$? it is just human nature to get take over by greed. i am sure there is more people doing the same thing, it is just that they are not getting caught yet. once there it is a business and there is always some crooks. it just a matter of time they get caught.


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## Puffer Pita (Jun 16, 2006)

There are a lot of companies that are businesses and need to make a profit but do so responsibly and ethically, without raping the environment. They should realize that when they do so, their long-term future is compromised. What are they going to sell after they've harvested all of the protected corals and they can't find anymore?


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## harif87 (Jun 5, 2006)

What bothers me is that they were only fined $25,000! The rock that they took illegally alone (40,000 pounds) would yield around $200,000. And thats at $5 a pound. Locally they charge around $9 which would be a profit of around $375,000! I dont know why they think 40,000 pounds of LR is only worth $75,000. Carib sea is probably laughing right now.


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## Puffer Pita (Jun 16, 2006)

$25,000 each defendant, but still a drop in the bucket for them, and "supervised probation" whatever that is. The story says the value of the coral was $75,000. They just got slapped on the wrist.


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## aaa (Jan 19, 2005)

Boxermom said:


> There are a lot of companies that are businesses and need to make a profit but do so responsibly and ethically, without raping the environment. They should realize that when they do so, their long-term future is compromised. What are they going to sell after they've harvested all of the protected corals and they can't find anymore?


but the problem is, people want quick money. they just don't care about what happen later. they just come in, grab everything and then said "screw you... i am out of here" and got his money and gone. that's exactly what is happening. if people ever think about or care about what will happen, we don't have to make up those laws and enforce them. 

plus i think the fine is way too small. not only they should be fine, they should be send back there and look at what they have done and restore the place with no pay and work 12 hours a day and no holiday until they work off their damage. that will teach people a good lesson. fines and even jail time mean nothing to those people. they need hard labor to remind them that restoring the damage is not an easy job.


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## flamingo (Nov 5, 2005)

I only really liked the sand . But, I think this is something BIG. While it's simply a small fined case, it causes concern for other companies. If some respected place like carib-sea is found doing this...what isn't saying that other big names aren't also?


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## BV77 (Jan 22, 2005)

just think of all the hazardous materials our own government has buried. In our own backyards.


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## Puffer Pita (Jun 16, 2006)

What's that got to do with the price of eggs?


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Oh puh_LEEEZE.
DO get off of your highhorses, people.

These guys haven't done anything that pretty much everyone else in the biz hasn't done as well. They just got caught. Sure it's shameful and bad, but if you want to know the real truth of it, it was NOTHING, yes, NOTHING, compared to... well, let me put it this way: 
40k pounds of live rock got sent to the USA without proper documentation. This rock was destined to be kept alive in the tanks of people who cared about it. Ironically, the reason there are even laws like this one to break is because people do care, and without aquariums they would never have wound up caring at all. 
Meanwhile, lots of 40 TONS, nay, 40K TONs of rock get dredged up all the time for things like making concrete and runways and such. 
However, this is perfectly okay for some reason.

I could go on, but I won't. You people are all here in the first place because of people like them. If you can't handle that, then get yourself another hobby. We've come a very long way over the past several years, and at this rate we'll pretty much eliminate the need for wildcaught specimens of any kind within another 10-15 years, thanks to the efforts of those who currently DO collect so that we can have the beginning stocks we need. That's assuming, of course, that we still HAVE a hobby in 10 years which we may well not.


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## Jackster (Apr 11, 2006)

I'll have to agree with "The Old Salt" on this one. I think you guys have way
over-reacted on this matter. I talked directly with the company in question 
and I happen to believe what they told me. The issue was simply a lost permit
and the product was coral rock which was collected on land not coral from the 
ocean. The person I talked to had no reason to mislead me as I had already
purchased a 50# bag of substrate from CaribSea and just had some questions
about the product. After my questions were answered, I brought up the subject
of the fine and the lady I was talking to was very credible IMO.

If you have never made a mistake in your life, than I guess you can be 
critical, however, if your like me and have made many mistakes along 
the road, than I would ask that you not be so quick to judge without looking 
all the information from both sides of the fence. If you've ever been caught 
driving a car without your driver's license in your pocket then you'll know
exactly what I'm talking about. 

And for those that are perfect, keep up the good work! LOL!


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## Puffer Pita (Jun 16, 2006)

Sorry to say but you were lied to. If it were simply a matter of a lost permit, there's substantial paperwork that would have shown they had the required permits. And rock sitting on a beach is not protected as endangered.


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## Jackster (Apr 11, 2006)

> "in connection with the illegal importation of more than 42,000 pounds of protected *coral rock* from Haiti to the United States."


Read the original post and you'll see that it was coral rock. BTW any type of rock
collected on land needs a permit. One can not even take sand or rock from a beach
in Wisconsin without a permit or be subject to a huge fine from the DNR.


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## Puffer Pita (Jun 16, 2006)

Yeah, but that varies by location. Some places you can do it without problem. However, I'm not sure which beach in the world would have 42,000 pounds of coral rock laying around.  What exactly do you think coral rock is?? _"...all coral rock, which is an invertebrate within the phylum coelenterate_."


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## Jackster (Apr 11, 2006)

Well please do post a location in Wisconsin where it's legal
to collect large amounts of rock or sand without a permit?

And as far as CaribSea goes, just don't buy any of their products. But please
remember you'll have to buy them from another company that may be as bad
or even worse. Personally I'll keep buying from CaribSea. 

I also hope you've never purchased any tropical fish that were taken from the
wild as I think that falls into the same category for people that feel so
strongly about the ethics of the aquarium trade.


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## Jackster (Apr 11, 2006)

Here's an interesting article. LMAO!

http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070109/NEWS01/701090376/1002/NEWS01


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