New York man kept sharks in his basement
When authorities made a search in 2017 at the Dutchess County, New York, home of a man who had recently been stopped in Georgia with five small sharks in the back of his truck, they found seven sandbar sharks swimming in an aboveground pool in his basement.
Then they found the carcasses of two leopard sharks and a hammerhead shark, and the snout of an endangered smalltooth sawfish, authorities said.
The man, Joshua Seguine, 40, of LaGrangeville, New York, pleaded guilty last week to a charge of illegal possession of the fish with the intent to sell them and was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine, the New York attorney general’s office said in a statement. The case drew attention to an underground market whose clients include professional athletes, entertainers and others with the means and the desire to keep exotic fish as pets.
Seguine was arrested in July 2017 in Georgia on charges of driving without a license and possessing five small sharks in a tank in the back of his truck, according to the New York attorney general’s office. Seguine admitted at the time that he was planning to take the sharks to New York and sell them, along with other live sharks he had at his home, authorities said.
After the New York Department of Environmental Conservation was informed of Seguine’s arrest in Georgia, the department started its own investigation, authorities said. Investigators learned that Seguine operated a business named Aquatic Apex Life LLC and that he offered sharks for sale on the website MonsterFishKeepers.com.
The New York attorney general’s office noted in its statement that the sandbar shark is a protected species under state law.
In addition to the sandbar sharks, which the Department of Environmental Conservation said were found in a 15-foot aboveground pool in the basement, the search of Seguine’s home also turned up the snout of a smalltooth sawfish. The smalltooth sawfish, which can grow up to 16 feet long and has a flat snout edged with teeth, was the first marine fish to be protected under the Endangered Species Act in 2003, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
It is legal to own sharks, which have become a status symbol of sorts for celebrities like Tracy Morgan, although the owning of protected species is prohibited.
Ken Moran, the founder of a South Carolina-based business called Shark Supply, said private sellers often broke the law, selling to clients who cannot guarantee a safe home for the sharks.