Ex-director of whaling museum, antiques dealer guilty of trafficking sperm
whale teeth
PHILADELPHIA The former director of a whaling museum and an antiques
dealer pleaded guilty Thursday to illegally importing hundreds of sperm
whale teeth from England and selling them to U.S. merchants.
Lewis Eisenberg, 60, the former director of The Whalers Village Museum in
analysis, Hawaii, bought many of the teeth and resold them to collectors of
scrimshaw, an art form in which designs are etched into whale bone.
Eisenberg, of Oak Harbor, Wash., sold teeth he got from antiques trader
Martin Schneider for more than $45,000.
Schneider, 59, of Blue Bell, Pa., got the teeth of the endangered whale in
Britain and smuggled them into the country by hiding them among other goods
he was importing. Prosecutors said he sold a total of $500,000 worth of
teeth from 1995 to 2005.
Both pleaded guilty to violations of the Endangered Species Act, the Mammal
Protection Act and the Lacey Act, which forbids the import or export of
wildlife that is illegally transported or sold.
Authorities said the arrests came as part of a nationwide investigation, but
that many of the collectors who bought the teeth have not been found.
Schneider's attorney, Gerald Stein, said his client believed the teeth came
from whales that were killed before the Endangered Species Act became law.
“He thought that these teeth were acquired at a time when it was legal to
acquire them,” Stein said.
An attorney for Eisenberg, Daniel-Paul Alva, said his client used bad
judgment.
“He was silly,” Alva said. “He knew it was wrong.”
Both attorneys said they were hoping their clients would be sentenced to
probation, not prison.
Wildlife smuggling is a multibillion-dollar illegal industry. Federal
officials describe it as the second-largest black market, behind only
narcotics.
