Coincidentally in the news yesterday:
Woman Allegedly Smuggles Fish in Cream Jar
BRISBANE, Australia - A 50-year-old woman has been charged with a quarantine offense for allegedly smuggling three tiny fish in a face cream jar into Australia from Taiwan, a government official said Thursday.
The woman, an Australian resident of Taiwanese descent, faces a maximum prison term of 10 years and a 110,000 Australian dollar ($82,889) fine on a charge for smuggling wildlife - juvenile fish each less than half an inch long, Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service spokesman Carson Creagh said.
"It does mystify us why she would bring such tiny fish in such a strange way," Creagh said.
Airport officials found the live fish in a cold cream jar filled with water in the woman's luggage when she arrived at Brisbane International Airport on Australia's east coast Tuesday.
The fish had not yet been identified, Creagh said. They will eventually be destroyed.
The woman was also carrying aquarium weed, leading officials to suspect she wanted to keep the fish as pets.
The woman's name has not been released and she has yet to appear in court on the charge.
"Quarantine officers couldn't be certain they were free from diseases or parasites that could have devastated our native wildlife," Creagh said.
Source: Associated Press/AP Online