The Hawaii Department of Agriculture regularly is called out to confiscate
illegals including pirhanas, baby silver dollarssnakes, camins, assorted
lizards, lion fish, etc. The species are banned from importation or
possesion (except zoos, etc). Yet people bring them in and some get
busted. Not all of them so we now have a possibly out break of garter
snakes on the big island. And bringing in legit stuff has gotten difficult
(not as bad as you guys in Australia or NZ yet). People will bring them in
regardless what the laws say and regardless of the fines or prison time.
Some kind of governance is better than anarchy, but it needs to
administered with intellegence. One of my friends here said he is working
with a bunch of frogs that depending on what the taxonomy people say can be
an endangered species one day and not the next. Having them listed makes
working on them difficult. All this just from a change in name. A rose by
any name would it smell as sweet? Intellegent decisions are important.....
MTF
Mach Fukada, Webmaster
Please Visit the Honolulu Aquarium Society's Home Page at:
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/2948/HASF.html