Smuggling apron with bags of fish.
Source: Australian Customs Service
Is that a fish in your skirt, Madam, or are you just glad to see me?
News watchers were amazed by a recent report from Customs and the Quarantine Service about a woman stopped at Melbourne airport trying to smuggle 51 live tropical fish into the country, concealed beneath her skirt.
Inspectors were alerted by flapping noises as she passed through the baggage examination area. Upon inspection they discovered a number of plastic bags containing fish, within pockets of a specially designed apron hidden by the skirt.
Dr Martin Gomon, Museum Victoria’s Senior Curator in Ichthyology, travelled to the International Terminal where he identified 21 separate species from an array of families, including an endangered CITES-listed Asian Arowana.
Sciences Department staff are regularly called on to identify animals suspected to be illegal imports, both alive and dead. In many cases only part of the animal may be present, such as within inlays of cultural objects, or skins transformed into bags and belts.