Expertise from the Royal Tyrrell Museum helped to a secure a conviction against a company bringing in parts of protected species of turtles.
Dr. Don Brinkman of the Royal Tyrrell Museum helped identify the shell fragments and plastrons (bottom part of the shell) to confirm they were the protected species of turtles and tortoises.
“Because I work on fossil turtles, they knew I could work with fragments. They knew I had the expertise to help with identification of the kind of material they were working with,” Brinkman told Inside Drumheller.
Two sea containers, originating from Hong Kong were imported by a Carbo Herbal Supplies, one arriving in October of 2013, and another in July of 2014. It was found that the first shipment contained 945 plastrons, 2,454 turtle shells and 52 bags of turtle shell fragments. The container that arrived last July had 224 bags of shell fragments.
In the first instance, Brinkman said he went to Vancouver to inspect the items. The next time investigators sent a sample, which he was able to identify as an endangered species. In all, he identified five turtle species and three species of tortoise.
The animals are listed as endangered under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which Canada signed on to in 1975. The company and its director were charged under Canada’s Wild Animal and Plant Protection and Regulation of International and Interprovincial Trade Act (WAPPRIITA)
The company and its director Mrs. Qin Zhou pleaded guilty to six counts under WAPPRIITA and were fined a global penalty of $18,750.
Brinkman tells inSide Drumheller he has worked on about eight different cases throughout the years. With the guilty pleas by the suspect, he did not have to testify in this case.
“It was pretty clear they were being smuggled, they were wrapped up in plant material, so the question was within this material, were there any of these species present?” he said, adding that many Southeast Asian turtles are on the endangered list because they have been exploited over years.
“There are a couple of groups where all the species are on the CITES list, and tortoises are one,” he said.
