Fish Allegedly Imported From Taiwan by Costa Mesa Company : U.S. Agents Seize 600,000 Pounds of Frozen Salmon

In what is being called the largest seizure of illegal salmon in U. S. history, federal agents in Tacoma, Wash., have confiscated 600,000 pounds of frozen fish allegedly owned by a Costa Mesa company.

Agents said half of the shipment was believed to have been caught illegally by Taiwanese fishermen in U. S. waters. It was bound from Taiwan to Japan and allegedly was part of a larger, elaborate scheme to avoid Japanese laws against importing Taiwanese fish by routing shipments through the United States.

Tip by Informant

An informant’s tip led National Marine Fisheries Service agents to a Tacoma warehouse where they confiscated two shipments of salmon allegedly imported by Union Inc., whose offices are on Kalmus Drive in Costa Mesa. The salmon, seized July 14 and July 20, was scheduled to be shipped to Tokyo, according to documents filed last Wednesday in U. S. District Court in Tacoma.

No federal charges have been filed against Union or its management. However, the marine fisheries service filed a complaint seeking possession of the salmon, which were packed in containers marked “Union Inc. CAL, USA.” The federal government values the fish at $800,000.

Union attorney Joseph Weinstein said he could not comment on the seizure or the federal court action. A Union Inc. spokeswoman also declined to discuss the case.

“The criminal side (of this) could be yet to come,” said Rolland Schmitten, regional director of the marine fisheries service in Seattle.

He said the case is significant because “much of our fish is disappearing illegally in the high seas.”

Schmitten said preliminary tests conducted on the salmon show that about 50% were caught in U. S. waters off the coast of Washington and Alaska. The other half were caught on the high seas.

He said the shipment violated a 1983 Taiwanese law against exporting salmon. Both that law and the Japanese law against importing Taiwanese salmon were passed in response to U. S. pressure to protect the salmon population, Schmitten said.

Union purchased the confiscated salmon from the San Hai Trading Co. of Singapore and imported it to Tacoma, according to court records. The salmon was scheduled to be reshipped to Tokyo when it was seized.

Young Ho Lee, general manager of Union Inc., permitted the federal agents to inspect the shipments, according to court records. He told the agents he had received approximately six shipments of salmon from Singapore and Hong Kong since February, 1986, according to the records.

However, the inspection showed the fish in the shipment had been caught in gill nets, and “Singapore and Hong Kong do not have high seas gill-net fishing fleets,” according to an affidavit filed in court by William F. Lutton, a special agent for the marine fisheries service. Lutton’s affidavit chronicles the allegedly illegal shipments of salmon from Taiwan to Tacoma and then on to Japan.

After it is used as evidence in court, Schmitten said, the salmon would probably be given to West Coast charity organizations to feed the poor because to “unload this volume of fish could depress the market.”