Thieves made off with 15 moi (a type of featherfin) from a display tank situated at the Waikiki Aquarium this past weekend.

They forced their way into the aquarium after it had shut its doors for the day, and made off with 15 of the 21 fish in an outdoor tank, sometime between Friday evening and Saturday morning, officials at the aquarium stated.

They made their way over a chain-link fence, cut out an opening in the netting of the tank, and then proceeded to abduct the fish using their own net, officials at the Waikiki Aquarium reported.

“It looks like they threw the moi out, they lay on the ground there and they put them in the bag,” Director of the Waikiki Aquarium, Andrew Rossiter, explained. “There were scales and blood there. There were two dead moi left there in the morning that they missed.”

Workers at the aquarium found the two deceased moi left unceremoniously on the ground in front of the tank.

The estimated value of the stolen fish is around $1,500, though who knows what someone will pay for them on the black market.

Even though the fish were stolen, Rossiter feels the need to implore that these particular fish are not fit for human consumption, as they were prepped for breeding and thus contain some hormones and chemicals which make a fairly unappetizing cocktail.

“I would guess that they’ve been treated probably with hormones and probably with medication because they’re adult fish and they were for breeding,” he said.

One wonders why not take all the fish? And also.. What the heck are they going to do with them?

This August, a turtle decided to take a stroll through a cannabis garden in a secluded part of one of America’s public parklands. This wouldn’t have been a problem for the resourceful horticulturist responsible for the plantation if it hadn’t been for the fact that this particular turtle was fitted with a GPS tracking device and followed by a park ranger. When the park ranger realised that the turtle had led him to an outdoor hydroponics lab, he contacted the police who stalked out the patch and eventually arrested its illicit gardener.

Florida Box Turtle. Picture by: Jonathan Zander

“He felt like he had a layer of security, but he probably never counted on a turtle with a tracking device leading us to that location and finding the field,” says Sergeant Robert Lachance of the U.S. Park Police. On a personal note I must humbly admit that I likely would have made the same misstake and been caught by Sergeant Robert Lachance as well. But after this I will make sure to consider the risk of turtlea with GPS tracking devices if I ever decide to get into the drug trade. (Just joking!)

The park in question was the Rock Creek Park, a large urban natural area with public park facilities that bisects Washington, D.C. The parklands follow the course of Rock Creek across the border between D.C. and Maryland and connect with the Rock Creek Stream Valley Park and the Rock Creek Regional Park in Montgomery County.