BRIDGEWATER, Maine — Turns out, there are worse things than getting called out by the fashion police.
A Newfoundland visitor to Maine discovered that earlier this month when she found herself up against the might of three federal agencies who nixed her accessory choice, confiscated her purse and fined her $250.
Nora Fitzgerald of Corner Brook, Newfoundland, had been in Hartland, New Brunswick, visiting a friend when the two decided to come into Maine on a shopping trip March 5.
Going out the door, Fitzgerald grabbed her sealskin purse, which had been a gift from her mother.
“I always get compliments on it,” Fitzgerald said by phone from Corner Brook on Tuesday afternoon. “I know fur is controversial but didn’t think the [United States] had any regulations against it.”
She learned otherwise when she and her friend stopped at the point of entry in Bridgewater.
“I had the purse on my lap and the [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] agent commented on it,” she said. “She asked if it was fur and I said, ‘Yes,’ and she asked what kind and I said, ‘Seal.’”
Moments later, Fitzgerald was inside the U.S. customs building handing over her passport and filling out paperwork as agents confiscated the purse.
“At first I was kind of taken aback,” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, can’t I just go back into Canada and leave my purse there?”
Since Fitzgerald had unwittingly broken the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act, there was no way that could happen, according to Neil Mendelsohn, U.S. Fish and Wildlife assistant special agent in charge of law enforcement for the Northeast.
“We have the marine mammal act which protects all seals, so it is a flat-out violation to import any [seal] parts or products,” Mendelsohn said Tuesday. “The seal skin purse was in direct violation of the act.”
Since the federal fish and wildlife agency has no agents in Aroostook County, it fell to customs officials to take possession of the purse, giving Fitzgerald a plastic bag in which she could empty its contents.
“They were so nice and I could tell they felt bad,” Fitzgerald said. “Especially when I told them it was a gift from my mom.”
Saying she could not comment on a specific case, Shelbe Benson-Fuller with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s office of public affairs in Maine did say that her agency enforces immigration laws as well as more than 400 laws for 40 other agencies, including U.S. Fish and Wildlife.
“As such, CBP routinely conducts inspection operations on arriving and departing international conveyances and searches for terrorist weapons, illicit narcotics, stolen vehicles, counterfeit merchandise, prohibited agriculture products and other prohibited items, including prohibited seal products,” she said.
But Fitzgerald’s purse’s journey through the U.S. regulatory bureaucracy did not stop at the border.
Jurisdictionally, Mendelsohn said, the case — and the purse — now belong to the National Marine Fisheries Service, a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Over at that agency, spokesperson Jennie Lyons on Tuesday stated in an email that the fisheries service is responsible for the actual enforcement of the Marine Mammal Protection Act when it comes to seals.
“Seals are mammals,” she said. “So unless you have a research permit or it predates the legislation, it can’t come in.”
What happens to the purse now is somewhat up in the air.
The fisheries service could end up keeping it to use as a display or educational item or have it destroyed, according to Lyons.
“It depends on if [Fitzgerald] voluntarily abandoned the purse or if the purse was seized as evidence,” Lyons said.
Fitzgerald said she never “voluntarily” abandoned anything and would love to get the purse back.
That is an option, according to Mendelsohn, who said Fitzgerald can petition to get the purse back and that she would have been given the forms to start that process in Bridgewater.
On Tuesday, Fitzgerald said she never was given any such form and had given up ever seeing the purse again, especially after receiving notification Monday from the U.S. Department of Commerce — which oversees NOAA — notifying her of a $250 fine and giving her 30 days to comply.
Failure to pay, she said according to the notice, could mean never being able to legally return to the United States.
Upon learning of the appeals process on Tuesday, Fitzgerald said she definitely would look into it as long as doing so did not become an expensive and lengthy international legal battle.
Meanwhile, the incident is the talk of Corner Brook and beyond.
“I posted it on my Facebook page and I was really surprised by the reaction,” she said. “It’s just kind of snowballed.”
Offers have come in from around Canada from individuals offering to replace the purse and the matter is gaining media attention.
The fallout is helping Corner Brook’s outdoor store The Rugged Edge where owner Craig Bordon said interest in the shop’s seal skin products has shot up since Fitzgerald’s story broke on CBC Newfoundland-Labrador news.
“We’ve been so busy the last couple of days and so many people are coming in asking about the seal skin items,” Borden said. “We know we can’t ship to the States and we make a point of telling people that.”
For her part, Fitzgerald bears no ill-will to anyone involved and understands ignorance of the import laws is no excuse.
“They were just doing their job,” she said of the U.S. officials. “I should have known the law, and I didn’t. But I would like my purse back.”
