Turtle, Crane Killers Sentenced, Snakehead Importer Arrested

WASHINGTON, DC, May 20, 2004 (ENS) - The U.S. Justice Department is cracking down on wildlife crimes. During the past week, two men have been sentenced for killing endangered species - a sea turtle and a whooping crane - and another man has been charged with importing Asian snakehead fish.

Bert E. Jenkins of Ocean Park, Washington was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Tacoma for collecting a green sea turtle from a beach in Ocean Park, and killing the turtle for its shell.

In February 2001, Jenkins and another individual took the turtle from the beach by truck. Jenkins shot the turtle in the head with a nail gun, and left it with the truck while he was at work that day. Later in the day, the turtle was observed crawling away from the truck. That evening, while the turtle was still alive, it was killed with a shot in the head with .22 caliber rifle. Jenkins cut the turtle out of its shell, discarded the turtle carcass, and kept the shell.

In December 2003, Jenkins pled guilty , and on May 13, he was sentenced to six months home detention with electronic monitoring, ordered to perform 40 hours of community service, and placed on two years probation.

In the wild, green sea turtles can live for 100 years, grow to a length of over three feet, and weigh up to 400 pounds. The green sea turtle populations are imperiled, and they are protected under the Endangered Species Act.

For shooting one of only 400 whooping cranes remaining in the United States, Dallas resident Donald W. Jones was sentenced May 14 in U.S. District Court in Dallas to six months in prison and ordered to surrender all hunting privileges.

On November 14, 2003, a day that the regular Texas waterfowl hunting season was closed, Jones admitted that he was duck hunting at Lake Bardwell in Ellis County, Texas. Lake Bardwell lies in a geographical zone of Texas closed to all crane hunting.

A Texas Game Warden discovered a zippered bag containing a dead whooping crane underneath a piece of camouflage burlap in Jones' truck. When questioned, Jones said he had always wanted to shoot a sandhill crane and admitted that he shot the whooping crane by mistake, believing it to be a sandhill crane. Whooping cranes are protected by the Endangered Species Act, and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, among other laws.

Also on May 14, in Los Angeles, a Glendale, California man was arrested on federal charges of illegally importing Northern snakehead fish.

These fish, eaten as a delicacy in Asia, can breathe air and walk on land. As adults they feed on native fish and animals, and have been found in Metropolitan Washington, DC and Maryland waters.

Sung Chul "Daniel" Rhee,was arrested at his Koreatown market by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service special agents. Rhee is the owner of Assi Super, Inc., a market where the fish were being sold after they were illegally imported from South Korea. Rhee Brothers, Inc. of Columbia, Maryland, is the parent company of Assi Super, Inc.

Charges against Rhee allege that he imported the live fish in three shipments in June 2003. The fish were hidden in larger shipments of fresh food sent by South Korea's Hae Won Seafood via Korean Air, and the snakeheads were labeled "sea bass" or "bass, fresh water fish."

An investigation showed that Rhee was selling the fish at Assi Supermarket for $14.99 a pound. The Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that Rhee generated nearly $23,000 in sales of snakehead fish in 2002 and the first half of 2003.

Snakehead fish, native to parts of Asia and Africa, are illegal in the United States due to the danger of them being released into the wild and decimating native species.

The charge of illegally importing injurious species carries a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison. If convicted of all three counts in the criminal complaint, Rhee faces a potential penalty of 15 years in prison.