Focus on International Wildlife Trade: Anchorage International Airport

Anchorage International Airport

When:   July 8, 1998, 9:30 a.m.    Where:  Anchorage International Airport          Concourse A    What:   Photo/Q&A Opportunity

Jamie Rappaport Clark, Director U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service.

The primary focus of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) Services nationwide wildlife inspection program is curtailing the illegal international wildlife trade. The National Director of the Service will be in Anchorage overseeing the wildlife inspection program at the Anchorage International Airport on July 8, 1998. Director Clark will be available, with members of the Alaska staff of Service wildlife inspectors, to will make a statement and to answer questions about international trade in wildlife and wildlife products.

• The Anchorage International Airport is the largest air cargo port in the United States by total volume.
  
• The number and value of wildlife goods traded has almost doubled in Anchorage since 1980.
  
• In 1997, Service inspectors in Anchorage handled more than 4,000 shipments, valued in excess of 5 million dollars. They detect on average 30 violations of wildlife laws and regulations each month.
  
• The United States remains the worlds number one market for wildlife and wildlife products--both legal and illegal. More than 76,000 declared shipments came into or out of the United States in 1997.

Fact sheets and additional information are available at the above number

--FWS--