Decorative koi OK’d for Maine restaurant

PORTLAND – State officials have agreed to let the owner of a Freeport restaurant publicly display his ornamental fish that were seized last summer by state fisheries agents.

Cuong Ly, owner of the China Rose restaurant, said he plans to put the koi back in his 150-gallon aquarium for customers to see next week after the agreement is final.

Ly had displayed the colorful fish since he opened the restaurant more than 15 years ago. Game wardens seized the fish in July after receiving a tip that they were on display in violation of a state law prohibiting the importation and possession of koi.

The state in December issued Ly a one-year permit allowing him to retrieve the koi, but the permit forbid him from putting the fish on display. Ly then filed an appeal in Cumberland County Superior Court challenging the terms in the permit.

Ly said the new agreement to let him display the fish gives him two reasons to celebrate because Sunday marks the start of Chinese new year.

“This is great news,” Ly said. “I had just about given up.”

The case drew widespread attention when Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife officials seized the fish. State officials consider the fish to be invasive species that could compete with native fish populations should they be released into the wild.

After the koi were removed, Ly placed another fish species, red parrots, in the restaurant tank because leaving it empty would give him an unlucky feeling. But it wasn’t the same as having the koi, which Ly credited for bringing good luck to his business.

Now Ly plans to retrieve his koi next week. They have been kept at a pet shop in New Hampshire, where possession of koi is legal if they’re not set free.

Ly’s attorney, Hope Jacobsen, said she received a call from the Office of the Attorney General on Friday informing her that the office was willing to settle Ly’s appeal of the conditions of the permit that was granted in December.

The amended conditions have been agreed upon, but the precise language will be worked out next week, she said.

The amended permit will be for five years instead of one and will allow Ly to put the fish on display in his restaurant as long as he has a sign on the fish tank informing people that the fish are illegal in Maine without a special permit, Jacobsen said.

“We’re ecstatic the department is willing to let him have the fish back and put them on display,” she said.

David Loughran, spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office, said his office has agreed to file a court motion to remand the permit to the fisheries department, but he did not know the specifics of the agreement.

A spokesman for the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife could not be reached for comment.