Restaurant owner shaken by armed wardens seizure of fish
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Naran
I think it may have been this thread, but someone pointed out some 700 laws (I think) just took effect.
Go ask an average Joe or Jane to tell you one law that was enacted, and most would fail to know.
Too many Legislators stop to think before making a law.
Many probally saw the MD case of the Snake Head fish, in a pond, and DId it for the Childeren.
What is the actual law that was put on the books?
EJ
This is all just so fishy....
Ah yes, the legal status of a fish. Maybe the fish could stay if they paid their back taxes, learned US history, or contributed more to our society? Can't we get them a work visa?
Updated article and Poll Question
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/local/060726species.shtml
Fish from away
Game wardens who seized a Freeport restaurant owner's koi fish say the fish are an example of a species that could compete with native species for food and habitat if they escaped or were released. Koi are now illegal to possess. The owner, who kept the fish as pets and says he got them before they were illegal to possess, says the seizure was heavy-handed. Do you agree with the seizure of the koi fish?
No: 66.25%
Yes: 30.77%
Undecided: 2.98%
Total Votes: 403
I sense a campaign button:
SAVE
The
Koi
Between
Game wardens who seized a Freeport restaurant owner's koi fish say the fish are an example of a species that could compete with native species for food and habitat if they escaped or were released. Koi are now illegal to possess. The owner, who kept the fish as pets and says he got them before they were illegal to possess, says the seizure was heavy-handed. Do you agree with the seizure of the koi fish?
No: 63.72%
Yes: 32.74%
Undecided: 3.53%
By Bryn Keating
TOPSHAM – A resident who is the only person in the state with a permit to keep exotic koi fish hopes to reunite a Freeport restaurateur with his own pet fish.
Ten koi, an Asian carp closely related to goldfish, were confiscated from the China Rose restaurant on Main Street in Freeport July 19 by uniformed wardens who charged the owner, Cuong Ly, with importing freshwater fish without a permit.
Proof positive that money talks. I'm sorry, but that is just whacked stuff. Need a permit to own such fish but the state won't give out said permit. What's the point then?? Message is loud and clear to me--NO, just NO. "Must conform, must not question, or you will be exterminated!"
Weisman said he did not know importing koi was illegal when he first brought the fish to Maine. He also said Maine is the only state in the country to outlaw the fish, a claim Boland could not confirm.
Weisman built an indoor pond in his home specifically for koi, which Boland estimated cost around $250,000.
“I had to prove that my koi were not a danger to the local species,†Weisman said. “They did not pose a reasonable risk, which is how the regulation reads.â€
Weisman was issued a permit with several stipulations.
So, he won in court, and got the permit, because he had the money; both to pursue a case, and to build the pond. If an indoor tank in a restaurant doesn't equate to an indoor pond in a home, what does?
Another case of "money talks."
And now for something completely different.
Find the fish
Where is the fish?
Nothing is random in The Meaning of Life.
We now return to your regularly scheduled postings.
Wasn't it the Dept that put the Togue in Sebago?
That was definately NOT a good idea.
I vote they fine themselves $10K, and spank themselves silly, too.
AUGUSTA
Restaurant owner recalls running afoul of fish law
AUGUSTA -- Three years ago, state wildlife officials forced the owner of an Chinese restaurant in Augusta to get rid of the koi fish he tenderly cared for in his lobby aquarium.
But unlike a Freeport restaurateur earlier this week, Tony Li, owner of Capital Buffet, said he didn't resist the order.
"They said koi fish cannot come to Maine and I said I didn't know," Li said.
Restaurateur plans appeal of denial of permit for fish
Friday, August 18,2006
FREEPORT (AP) - The owner of a popular Chinese restaurant plans to appeal the state's denial of a permit that would allow him to reclaim the 10 exotic fish seized last month by armed wardens from their tank in the restaurant lobby.
Cuong Ly was notified last week that the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife had rejected his application for an importation permit for his 12- to 14-inch pet koi and that he had 30 days in which to appeal the decision to a three-member review board.
Welcome to Maine. The land of "Just No and infinitessimal amounts of retardedness. New Yorkers with Hummers welcome."
September 19, 2006
Restaurant owner pleads not guilty in koi case
By Dennis Hoey, Portland Press Herald Staff Writer
A Freeport restaurant owner pleaded not guilty Tuesday to illegally importing koi, an exotic fish the state contends could destroy native fish populations.
Cuong Ly, who owns The China Rose restaurant, said he is prepared to plead his case before a jury if necessary.
Ly said koi are pets and, in his culture, are looked upon as being able to bring good fortune to their owners. A trial date has been set for Nov. 22 in West Bath District Court.
If convicted, Ly could be fined up to $10,000.
Oh no!
Not the “ravaging armies of liberal game wardens†thread again…
Frosty - what's wrong with Killer Koi Redux? Last year we had the never-ending saga of Bears, Bears, Bears, Donuts, Bears, Bears, Stale Danish, Bears Bears ......
:D
I still think it was either Rove or Cheney that outed the undercover Koi ;) :lol:
Free the koi
Al
I like seeing the follow-ups to these older threads....case closed type of thing.
$10,000 bucks is a lot of change.
There was no intent to break the law...
Good grief, is Maine that hahd up for money?
ARMED wildlife agents! What did they expect, killer fish....
This is an agency suffering delusions of competence.
"Armed wildlife agents" means "nature's" armed agents with weapons used against humans. They are not after killer fish; they are killer viros after us.
Ah yes…
The ridiculous “armed liberal killer viro game warden†theory rears it’s ugly head once again…
:roll:
Ah yes…
The ridiculous “armed liberal killer viro game warden†theory rears it’s ugly head once again…
:roll:
Then you misread it. That statement was about radical viros and an out-of-control bureaucracy, not a theory about game wardens or mere liberals.
Owner of seized koi presents his case to review panel
October 4, 2006
AUGUSTA, Maine --A review panel from the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has 30 days to decide whether Cuong Ly will be allowed to recover the 10 ornamental fish that wardens seized from a tank at his popular Freeport restaurant.
Ly had kept the goldfish-like koi for about 15 years, but the state prohibits people from keeping the fish without a permit for fear they could somehow get loose and wipe out populations of native freshwater species.
This is hysterical. Too bad it's a true story. They should give him his fish back, sit down and enjoy a dinner at his restaurant. If our Governor was smart (a stretch of an assumption, I realize), he'd make sure the appeal was approved and then have a photo op of him dining at the restaurant, enjoying the atmospere that includes the fish.
Restauranteur To Be Reunited With Fish
By News 8 WMTW
AUGUSTA, Maine -- A Freeport restaurant owner has won his fight to get his exotic fish back.
A state review board voted Monday to issue a permit to Cuong Ly that will allow him to own koi fish.
State game wardens raided the China Rose Restaurant earlier this year and seized the 10 ornamental fish, which are considered an invasive species in Maine.
I can't imagine a crazier story than this....
Say what? ... Oh... nevermind....
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Correct.
It should also be noted that until the new law was enacted (I believe in 2005?) Mr. Ly was a completely law-abiding citizen, happily feeding his legally obtained, 14-year-old fishies, cleaning their tanks, and cheerily believing they brought him and his family great good luck.
The new law is what made him a criminal. All he had to do to transgress the law and become a bad guy was wake up one more morning after the measure was enacted, and drag out the fish food. How the heck was he supposed to know this?
I wasn't aware koi were illegal in Maine until this story broke, and I bet you any amount of tartar sauce there are presently thousands in Maine who still don't know that.