Mr. Hall expressed particular gratitude to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources for their assistance in making this case. According to Fish and Wildlife Service Special Agent David Cartwright, who led the investigation, tracking the criminals' paper trail to gather evidence was an exhausting, time-consuming process. Making the case involved analyzing 200,000 documents seized from Tennessee Shell Company, reviewing records, conducting interviews, and developing witnesses. Cartwright said the stolen shells were shipped to Tennessee Shell, where they were mixed with shells from legal sources, loaded into sacks, placed in 22-ton freight containers and exported to Japan by way of West Coast ports, including Los Angeles. Director Myers pointed out that shelling can be and is done legally, including by Tennessee Shell Company, and provides jobs and livelihoods for about 10,000 people, primarily in the Mississippi River Basin.
Freshwater mussels are one of the most endangered families of wildlife in America.
While found on every continent except Antarctica, freshwater mussels are most diverse in the Mississippi and Ohio River drainages of the United States. An estimated 70 percent of the nation's mussels are at risk from a variety of threats, reflecting an unparallel level of collapse of a family of wildlife. Human-induced habitat loss is considered the major reason for the collapse. State conservation agencies and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists became alarmed at the loss of the mussel resources from poaching in recent years and requested that special agents of the Service's Division of Law Enforcement get involved to help them stem the interstate and international illegal trade. Due to their larger size and greater thickness, shells of mussels from the South and Midwest are in great demand in the Orient.