To all, it is not that my state will not allow GG imported, they will no allow any fish that does not have a health certificate that is done by an independent lab to their satisfaction. I must say that years ago I talked to Ken a bunch about this. He was willing to do whatever it took including sending fish to a lab to get tested. But then it got more complicated. There needs to be a standard test sample from each pond tested, that meant a number of fish (60 I think), plus I needed a certification that the tested fish came from the pond that was tested. Then my state requires a permit which includes the date, approximate time, travel route, vehicle license number for which the fish will be transported. It was also interesting that they informed me that they have never issued any permits to import GG into Minnesota and their suspicion was that if any were being sold here it was illegal. It is clear that if you have customers who drive out of state to pick them up themselves they are doing it to avoid the health permit issues and hence are illegal. You could call this all overkill but they tell me the biggest reason for the health stuff is they are really working hard to try to keep LMB virus out of the state. They stated that if a hatchery cannot provide the standard health test of 60 fish per pond and certification that what they sell is from that pond then you don't want to deal with them because they aren't following standard health protocol. I concluded that this is just more than you guys are used to in southern states and I gave up on the whole idea of importing anything from anywhere. I was stuck buying fish locally for 10 times the price I could get from out of state.
