Recently I've decided to do a "This Week In Weird News" series where I essentially inform people about what strange news stories are circulating around the web; I will do this every other week. You'd be surprised about the things that people do (...or maybe you wouldn't because the world is a strange place). Any who, below is the first installment. Enjoy! :)
Forty-two year-old Tommy Zhou, a Brooklyn seafood dealer, was sentenced on Friday, November 3rd to 1 ½ years in prison for trafficking $150,000+ worth of baby eels or elvers (baby eels are also called elvers). Zhou pleaded guilty to his crime in April.
According to ABC News, these eels are reportedly valuable because they can be "sold to Asian aquaculture companies so they can be raised to maturity and used as food." Fishermen make over $2,000 per pound selling elvers.
Being that harvesting is only legal in Maine and South Carolina, Zhou "obtained" a license from Maine and went on to utilize it for his illegal activities.
Zhou's attorney had no comment on the matter.
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Weird/wireStory/man-prison-t...