Other wildlife cases

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2005:

U.S. District Judge Barry Ted Moskowitz ruled on January 19,
2005 in San Diego that the Honolulu-based King Diamond II became a
fishing vessel under U.S. law when it collected 32 tons of shark fins
from 26 swordfish and tuna fishing boats between June and August
2002. The prosecution is the first under the five-year-old U.S.
anti-shark finning law. Tai Loong Hong Marine Products Ltd., of
Hong Kong, boat owner Tran & Yu Inc., and captain Chien Tan Nguyen
face up to $620,000 in fines for alleged possession of shark fins
without the bodies of the sharks, which have little sale value. The
King Diamond II operators allegedly paid $300,000 for the fins, with
an estimated retail value of $775,000. They retrieved and sold the
fins after posting bond for that amount.
District Judge David Rice of Havre, Montana, on February
12, 2005 rejected claims by three ex-game ranchers that Initiative
143, approved by voters in November 2000, was an illegal “taking”
of their property because in banning game farming, it put them out
of business. “The state does not owe compensation for injury to the
value of a business that exists only because the Legislature has
allowed it,” Rice wrote. Rice pointed out that the ex-game farmers
are “free to make other economically viable use of their property.”