By DPA
Wellington : A 55-year-old man has been convicted for trying to import 700 kg of coral into New Zealand. He claimed he wanted the coral to build a fishpond in his back garden, customs officials announced Friday.
They said the stony reef building coral, a living organism obtained from the central to western Pacific Ocean, was New Zealand’s biggest single seizure of illegally imported coral.
Imports are banned by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
It was found in a shipping container from China, and Charles Yip Mou Lam said he had asked a friend in China to send him the material he needed for a fishpond.
He was fined $6,545 for importing specimens of a threatened species, when he appeared in court in Auckland.