AVA Reminder

[Arodynamics]

A Gentle Reminder From AVA - Please read carefully

The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) would like to remind all net users that only AVA licensed traders are allowed to engage in commercial trade in fish (such as Asian arowanas), corals and other marine invertebrates. Under the Endangered Species (Import and Export) Act, it is an offence for a person to sell, offer for sale, or display to the public any CITES species (eg. Asian arowanas, hard corals, giant clams and many others) that has been imported without AVA permits. The offender is liable to be prosecuted in court and may be fined up to S$5,000 (or S$10,000 for repeated offences) and/or jailed for one year. For more details, please refer to the AVA website at http://www.ava.gov.sg

[Arodynamics]

Enquiry on the legality of selling of arowanas between hobbyists

Regarding the enquiry on the legality of selling of arowanas between hobbyists, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) do not encourage such transactions. Selling the arowanas on a regular basis will be of a commercial nature, which violates Section 48(1) of the Animals and Birds Act which requires anyone engaging in commercial sale of ornamental fish to have a licence from AVA. Commercial sale of arowanas can only be carried out in an AVA-licensed fancy fish shop. In addition to a fancy fish shop licence, the retailer is required to have a licence to trade in arowanas.

Offenders may be fined up to S$5,000 and/or up to 6 months imprisonment under the Act. We are also concerned that the arowanas being sold on the Net are of illegal origin (ie. imported without CITES permits) which would be a violation of the Endangered Species (Import and Export) Act. The offence could carry a fine of up to S$5,000 and/or 1 year in jail. We would appreciate it if you could desseminate this information to your Net users within your forum, and inform us if any of them refuses to comply with the rules.

[Arodynamics]

Please kindly note that all Asian Arowana (Scleropages formosa) must be tagged.