U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director visits Logan staff

BOSTON — The tusk stops here. So does the Beluga caviar, the boots made from sea turtle hide, the gall bladder pulled from an Asian bear.

"We do try to be prepared for the unexpected," said Wildlife Inspector Jennifer Irving of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

And there’s been lots more of the unexpected coming through Logan. Irving, who’s been with USFWS at Logan for 20 years, said the workload in recent years has doubled thanks to a big increase in the number of airlines serving the airport - most of them international carriers.

In fact, between January 2018 and January 2020, international passenger traffic at Logan jumped more than 22 percent, according to Massport.

And then came COVID-19, which has turned the once-bustling international arrivals terminal into a ghost town. Thursday morning, a single international flight from Reykjavik, Iceland was scheduled to arrive. The baggage area was dark and deserted.

The lull, however unwelcome to the local economy, provided an opportunity for the USFWS Director to kick off the New England portion of her Reopening America tour.

Aurelia Skipwith, an attorney and biologist, was confirmed by the Senate last December. She is the first African-American director of the agency.

“I’m in DC and it’s really great to be able to get out in the field and really understand what’s going on,” said Skipwith. “And the best way to be able to do that is to talk to the employees.”

Irving and fellow Wildlife Inspector Bryan Guzek showed the director several of the items seized from passenger bags and cargo containers, including a shawl made of what is considered the finest wool in the world. Irving demonstrated the quality of the shawl by noting how it could pass entirely through a wedding ring.

What’s illegal about it? The shawl is made from the hide of the Tibetan Antelope and rather than sheared, the animal is slaughtered to create the garment. It takes four antelope to make one shawl.

Other commonly encountered illegal items: sea turtle leather, hides from big cats and various items made from ivory.

“Especially when it comes to threatened and endangered species, items and species that are listed, those are the ones that we have a responsibility to make sure we’re caring for them,” said Skipwith, who noted that several species have come off the endangered list during the Trump administration.

The director also learned the job of a wildlife inspector can be filled with surprises.

Irving recalled the time a passenger from the Dominican Republic arrived with a hitchhiker inside her luggage; a large, tarantula spider that popped out during a customs inspection. She was nearby and was able to contain the arachnid making her, she said, the most popular person at the airport that day.

Guzek, who works inspecting shipping containers at Massport’s Boston Harbor facility said courier services are supposed to list the contents of what’s inside a container, but that list can’t always be trusted.

“It’ll say, you know, plastic toys and you open it up and it could be smuggled reptiles,” said Guzek. Sometimes dead, sometimes not.

After leaving Logan, Skipwith planned visits to two wildlife refuges in Massachusetts - Parker River in Newbury and Great Meadows in Sudbury, before heading to Maine. She said her message at each stop will be the same: these public lands are open and Americans should come out and enjoy them.

© 2020 Cox Media Group