The following is lifted from another listserver, but should be of interest
to Conch-L. I am pleased to say I had a small part in this. When the
poachers are caught in Ohio, I am the one they call at 2 AM to go ID the
specimens.
 
Article reads:
 
Business Wire
24-JUL-98
 
MEMPHIS, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 24, 1998-- One Million For Mussels
 
Veronica F. Coleman, United States Attorney for the Western District of
Tennessee; H. Dale Hall, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Acting Regional
Director; and Gary Meyers, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency Executive
Director, announced today that the Camden, Tennessee-based, Japanese-owned
Tennessee Shell Company pled guilty to a felony in U.S. District Court in
Jackson, Tennessee, and will pay $1 million in restitution for purchasing
thousands of pounds of illegally taken freshwater mussels from rivers in
Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia.
 
This is the largest amount of restitution ever paid as a result of a federal
criminal investigation into the illegal commercial exploitation of wildlife
resources. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service special agents, state wildlife
officers, and the Department of Justice made the case after a 4-year
investigation into the company's multi-million dollar trade activities.
 
The largest shell buying/exporting company in the United States and a
subsidiary of Kogen Trading Company, Ltd., of Tokyo, Japan, Tennessee Shell
Company pled guilty to one felony Lacey Act count. The federal Lacey Act
prohibits interstate commerce in wildlife protected under state or federal law
and thereby enables federal law enforcement officers to assist states in
protecting their wildlife resources.
 
According to Ms. Coleman, the Tennessee Shell Company purchased the large and
valuable mussels from independent buyers and divers, with the full knowledge
that they had been taken from waters where state law prohibited their harvest.
"What this case boils down to is the plundering of America's wildlife, for
profit," said Ms. Coleman.
 
"While freshwater mussels are not cuddly creatures with eyelashes, they are
hugely important in the biological scheme of things," said Acting Regional
Director Hall. "They are the proverbial 'canaries in the coal mine,' warning
us of danger by detecting and filtering out pollutants and toxic chemicals in
the water that may affect human health. They are also a food source for other
animals and an anchor for plants on the riverbed. But they are being wiped out
as a result of human activities, and, in this case, because of greed," he
said.
 
"As commercial quantities of shells became scarce in legal areas of the South,
prices soared from $2-3 to as much as $13 per pound at the time of this
investigation," said Director Myers. "Tennessee Shell and its suppliers began
looking for any source of shells, legal or otherwise, which led them to the
protected mussel beds. Today, however, the company is paying a high price for
its illegal activities," he said.
 
A Federal Grand Jury in Jackson, Tennessee, has indicted 20 individuals for
136 counts of violating the Lacey Act, with regard to fresh water mussels. To
date, 19 defendants have pled guilty, and one has entered a pretrial diversion
agreement in U S. District Court in Jackson, resulting in a total of nearly
$67,000 in restitution ordered to be paid to the State of Michigan (from whose
waters many of the mussels were harvested), along with prison sentences and
periods of supervised release or probation for these individuals.
 
The $1 million in restitution from Tennessee Shell will be paid to the
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to establish the Freshwater Mussel
Conservation Fund for mussel research and recovery. "This is an important
event in the annals of wildlife conservation history because it ultimately
returns a significant amount of money to wildlife agencies to work on the task
of protecting and restoring the exploited species," said the Foundation's
Director of Conservation Programs, Whitney Tilt. The Foundation is an
organization established by Congress to assist the Fish and Wildlife Service
and others in raising funds for wildlife conservation.
 
Special agents of the Fish and Wildlife Service worked with state officers in
Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, Alabama and Louisiana, to
follow the trail of evidence from the Ohio, Muskingum, Green and Grand rivers
to the company's headquarters in Camden, Tennessee, and from there through
West Coast ports to Japan. Mr. Hall expressed particular gratitude to the
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and the Kentucky Department of Fish and
Wildlife Resources for their assistance in making this case. "This case might
never have come to prosecution without their help," he said.
 
According to Fish and Wildlife Service Special Agent David Cartwright, who led
the investigation, tracking the criminals' paper trail to gather evidence was
an exhausting, time-consuming process.
 
"Making the case involved analyzing 200,000 documents seized from Tennessee
Shell Company, reviewing records, conducting interviews, and developing
witnesses. Through this effort, we were successful in gathering overwhelming
evidence against Tennessee Shell Company," said Cartwright.
 
Cartwright said the stolen shells were shipped to Tennessee Shell, where they
were mixed with shells from legal sources, loaded into sacks, placed in 22-ton
freight containers and exported to Japan by way of West Coast ports, including
Los Angeles. Records recovered during the investigation revealed a $50 million
annual domestic business for shell companies in the United States and a $5
billion annual foreign trade to meet the demands for pearls, fine jewelry and
other products.
 
Director Myers pointed out that shelling can be and is done legally, including
by Tennessee Shell Company, and provides jobs and livelihoods for about 10,000
people, primarily in the Mississippi River Basin.
 
Freshwater mussels are one of the most endangered families of wildlife in
America. While found on every continent except Antarctica, freshwater mussels
are most diverse in the Mississippi and Ohio River drainages of the United
States. Of the approximately 300 known species of mussels, 30 are extinct and
another 70 are listed as threatened or endangered. An estimated 70 percent of
the nation's mussels are at risk from a variety of threats, reflecting an
unparallel level of collapse of a family of wildlife. Human-induced habitat
loss is considered the major reason for the collapse.
 
State conservation agencies and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists
became alarmed at the loss of the mussel resources from poaching in recent
years and requested that special agents of the Service's Division of Law
Enforcement get involved to help them stem the interstate and international
illegal trade.
 
Due to their larger size and greater thickness, shells of mussels from the
South and Midwest are in great demand in the Orient. Most of the shells end up
in Japan, where shell pieces are rounded into beads and implanted into live
oysters. The bead is an irritant to the oyster and, in defense, the oyster
secretes "nacre," a pearly substance, around the bead. After 2-3 years, a
cultured freshwater pearl is formed. The larger the original bead, the larger
the resultant pearl.
 
In the United States, the industry is primarily based along the Mississippi
River drainage, with the largest companies predominantly located in Tennessee.
 
The joint federal and state investigations involved U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service special agents east of the Mississippi River; state wildlife officers
from Tennessee, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, Alabama and
Louisiana; and assistant United States Attorneys from Tennessee, Michigan and
Illinois. Supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney Len Register, United States
Attorney's Office, Western District of Tennessee, Eastern Division, Jackson,
led the prosecution. Special agents Carl Wilson (Grand Rapids, Michigan) and
Andy Pierce (Columbus, Ohio) supported the investigation. NOTE TO THE PUBLIC:
Recent studies indicate that more than $100 billion per year is generated in
the United States economy directly from activities related to our public fish
and wildlife resources. Unfortunately, analysis of world wide criminal
activities conducted by Interpol and published in the November 1994 Time
Magazine story "Animal Genocide, Mob Style" also reveals that the
international illegal trade in wildlife trafficking is the second largest form
of black-market commerce in the world, behind drugs and ahead of illegal arms.
The public can help stop wildlife law violations by reporting suspicious
activities to State or Federal wildlife officers and by refusing to purchase
products made from protected wildlife.
 
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal federal agency responsible
for conserving, protecting, and enhancing fish and wildlife and their habitats
for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service's 94 million
acres include 514 national wildlife refuges, 78 ecological services field
stations, 65 national fish hatcheries, 50 wildlife coordination areas, and 38
wetland management districts with waterfowl production areas.
 
The agency enforces Federal wildlife laws, manages migratory bird populations,
restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife
habitat such as wetlands, administers the Endangered Species Act, and helps
foreign governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the
Federal Aid program that distributes Federal excise taxes on fishing and
hunting equipment to state wildlife agencies. This program is a cornerstone of
the Nation's wildlife management efforts, funding fish and wildlife
restoration, boating access, hunter education, shooting ranges, and related
projects across America.
 
Mitch Snow, 202/208-5634 (Washington, DC)
 
 
 
G. Thomas Watters
Ohio Biological Survey &
Aquatic Ecology Laboratory
Ohio State University
1315 Kinnear Road
Columbus, OH  USA
v: 614-292-6170
f: 614-292-0181