Conch Smuggling

This week, Canadian wildlife officials caught three men smuggling large amounts of Queen conch shellfish, an endangered species, before exporting some of it to the U.S. The smugglers imported an estimated 263,958 pounds (!) of conches, with a value of $2.6 million, from the Caribbean and South America between late 2003 and the end of 2006. The mollusk is protected by an international treaty but used in Asian and Caribbean cooking. The shipments were mislabeled as whelk, another large shellfish that is not endangered. This conch case is a reminder to never doubt the power of an individual (or in this case, three). It's not clear what the penalty will be...