Fish on a plane

[madattiver]

Anyone have any experience with bringing home fish from the US from a vacation or trip?? I am looking for some insight into this to see if there are any do's and don'ts.. maybe some tips.. basically anything regarding this topic would be a great help

[Melody]

A plane is a whole different ball game than driving. Start with the airline your flying on and check their reg's. You probably can't carry them on with the new liquid reg's. Most won't let you check them as luggage. Dogs roam the airports so they'd probably sniff them out. You would probably be better off shipping them to yourself via air cargo guaranteed freight.

People will tell you that they've done it, but the security measures have been beefed up over the past couple of years and regulations change. Air Canada recently stopped allowing animals in the cabin, for example, whereas I think Westjet still allows it.

Then you have to make sure you're not importing any illegal species, which isn't a tough one coming into Canada - its going out that would be hard due to climates. Make sure you have the full species name for all fish and a receipt, which you can print out from Paypal if you list the fish in the notes section. Don't forget to include how many of each fish there is. DO NOT LIE....lol....seriously, getting nailed at a border can black-mark you for life, not to mention some hefty fines. Its not worth it - go strictly by the book no matter how tempting it is.

Also be aware that the States have some very sticky laws, especially about invasives. Like its legal to own and sell a Marisa snail within a State, but you can't take or ship it into another State, even if it just flies over that State and comes to Canada.

Driving would be a better idea, in my opinion, or shipping them via cargo. No plants.

[madattiver]

thanks.. that does sound a little scary.. maybe i will hold off on this idea

[Melody]

Call Customs and see what they say. Things change frequently so I could be way off base. :smile: They've always been very nice and helpful when I've called them.

[AnimeEd]

I caught some wild guppies during my stay in Hong Kong last month and I put them in a water bottle. I putted the bottle in my checked luggage and I claimed I had wild guppies on my custom form when I came back. They wanted me to show them to the custom officer and the officer told me I can bring fish in as long as I claim them.

[Melody]

That's good to know and it makes sense if driving them across isn't a prob. Some of the airlines won't take them though. A lot also depends on how easy it is to ID the fish, but not too many fish are banned here. They'd more likely look for people snagging endangered fish from the wild & such, or known disease carriers.

Definitly worth some phone calls anyway. Thanks for chiming in Ed - got any pic's of the Guppies for the Photo section?