Man to be reunited with good-luck fish

PORTLAND – The owner of the China Rose restaurant in Freeport will be reunited with 10 fish seized from his aquarium last summer as long as he meets requirements including having microchips inserted in them so they can be tracked.

A three-member review panel from the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife voted unanimously Monday to issue a permit to allow Cuong Ly to keep the koi that he regards as part of his family and a source of good luck for his business.

The state wildlife officials regard the fish differently; they believe the koi could be a threat to native species if they somehow were released into the wild.

Ly said he’s happy to get his fish back, but he said he’s disappointed by the restrictions that prevent them from being publicly displayed at his restaurant.

“It’s a joke. They want me to hide them in the basement,” said Ly, who may go to court to appeal the condition that bars him from displaying the fish publicly.

Other conditions set by the review board require that the koi be fitted with microchips; they cannot be sold, traded or given away; they cannot be bred and the department must be notified within 24 hours if one of the fish dies.

Ly had the fish in the restaurant lobby for 15 years.

“The good news is that I get my fish back,” said Ly. “The bad news is they don’t let me display them in the tank where they used to be and where they belong.”

The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has been criticized for its handling of the incident and the way it seized Ly’s fish. But a spokesman said Monday that the agency bent over backward to accommodate Ly.

Meeting with Ly in Augusta, the review board said it wanted the fish kept out of sight to discourage others from seeking to own exotic species that pose a potential threat to Maine’s native freshwater fish.

“The feeling of the board was that if they were displayed publicly, more people would want to import these fish illegally,” said Mark Latti, a spokesman for the department.

The koi, which range in size from 12 to 14 inches, were being kept at a pet shop in Portsmouth, N.H., pending the outcome of Ly’s appeal.

Ly, who immigrated to the U.S. from Vietnam in 1979, told the board at a hearing that he would never allow the fish to find their way in the environment.

The restaurant owner also faces a misdemeanor charge of illegally importing koi, for which he could be fined $1,000. No court date has been set for the jury trial that Ly requested in conjunction with his not-guilty plea in West Bath District Court.

The permit will be issued soon, Latti said, but Ly may have to wait before he reclaims the koi. “The fish remain as evidence in the state’s trial, so they will not become available until this case winds its way through the court system,” Latti said.