Folks,
Ibama arrested Mr. Horst Linke in Manaus yesterday with a load
of
illegally collected fishes. He and four other members of his group are
guests of the Brazilian Federal police and will most likely be expeled
from Brazil. If they get framed under the new law, they can be fined
to close to 1 million dollars. Mr. Linke tryed to pull the act that he
was
collecting for research purposes and got in worst trouble than if he had
said that he was a hobbyist. He and his group had no official permit
from
Ibama or any colaboration agreement with any Brazilian institution.
This
is the second arrest of German aquarists in less than a month.
As the witch hunt for biopirates continues, I strongly recommend that no
speciemens hand carried out of brazil must have all the proper
documentation. Here in manaus we have had several cases of our own
coleagues been retained at the airport with the loan invoices in perfect
order, and the specimens confiscated. We had to argue with the Federal
police that we have the jurisdiction to send those specimens on loan,
and
get our holdings back. This is becoming a nightmare. Every time someone
takes hand carried specimens we have to tell the federal police in
advance, so that they know before hand, otherwise they will retain the
speciemens.
Best Fishes,
Paulo