Saturday 23 September
2017 11.31 BST Last modified on Monday 25 September
2017 09.54 BST
Two Buddhists who released £5,000
worth of crustaceans into the Channel as part of a religious ceremony have been
fined almost £15,000 for causing “untold damage” to the environment.
Zhixiong Li and Ni Li helped
throw live crabs and lobsters into the sea off Brighton as part of a “life
release” ceremony in 2015, a court has heard.
The pair were part of a group of
almost 1,000 people celebrating the visit of the Taiwanese Buddhist master Hai
Tao.
Their ritual was performed in the
belief that returning animals to the wild is good karma. But because the
crustaceans were not native species, they threatened other marine life and
government agencies had to spend thousands of pounds in an attempt to recapture
the shellfish, offering fishermen a bounty to reel them in.
In the first case of its kind,
Zhixiong Li, 30, an estate agent, and Ni Li, 33, a City banker, both from
London, admitted wildlife offences and were fined.
Both defendants pleaded guilty to
releasing non-native species into the wild at Brighton magistrates’ court this
week.
Joseph Miller, prosecuting for
the Marine Management Organisation, said the case first came to light after a
Brighton fisherman captured some of the foreign shellfish in June 2015.
CCTV footage from Brighton marina
showed the group of Buddhists chartering three boats, having also bought more
than £2,500 worth of native crabs and lobsters from Brighton and Newhaven Fish
Sales at Shoreham harbour.
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