Fish Smuggling Suspect Seized at U.S. Border

There’s nothing unusual about having fish in a tank, but when those fish are a protected species, and when the tank is a gas tank, that’s unusual. And illegal.

A Los Angeles County man was arrested at the San Ysidro border crossing when U.S. Customs Service agents thought there was something, ah, fishy about one of the external gas tanks on his pickup truck, officials said Monday.

Scott Patrick Clark, 29, of Sierra Madre, was arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle 36 garibaldi fish from Mexico in plastic bags hidden inside the side-mounted tank. The bust comes just weeks after a law took effect that makes it illegal to catch or import a garibaldi, which just happens to be California’s official marine fish.

In addition to the fish in the plastic bags, agents found a large fish tank mounted in the truck’s camper shell and connected to a battery to keep it aerated, according to Customs spokeswoman Bobbie Cassidy.

Most of the fish, gold in color and six to 12 inches in length, were already dead. Eleven are now at Sea World, where they have been put into a quarantine aquarium.

“They seem to be in reasonably good shape, although it’s hard to say with fish,” said Mike Shaw, fish curator at Sea World.

A bill by Assemblyman Bill Morrow (R-Oceanside) to ban the catching or importing of garibaldis became effective Jan. 1. Morrow said the bill was needed because the fish’s great popularity among aquarium enthusiasts was leading to its depletion.

The ban is to last until Feb. 1, 1999, to give the garibaldi time to replenish. Until recently, garibaldis, with wide, perch-like bodies and large eyes, were plentiful off the California and Mexican coast.