[Nhcoll-l] Filing post-import 3-177s for specimens for taxonomic & systematic research

Sun Feb 19 04:53:18 EST 2023

Hi all,

a dear colleague made me aware that my fast fingers implied "suing" FedEx or UPS - of course this should have read "using".

Apologies for this typo!

Dirk

Am 18.02.2023 um 11:58 schrieb Dirk Neumann:
Dear Trina, Ben, Andy and all,

a major hurdle for all shippers outside the US is that the usually have no idea which "their port of entry" will be. If they are suing FedEx or UPS, they may guess "Memphis" or "Louiseville", but in many cases this is wrong, especially for shipments to the East and West Coast.

So it is simply impossible to identify the respective port of entry. In Europe there was a similar system in place for (national) postal shipments, that required that you would need import permission from the responsible Competent National Authority in the respective EU Member State, where the legal responsibility usually was handed down further in the chain from a national to federal or local level. The solution was to amened the EU legislation, as this was way easier, and to come up with harmonised language of what we ship, to support agencies and carriers to positively identify our preserved museum materials.

I can only strongly encourage all shipping preserved museum specimens to adopt this language. We definitely need common understanding between agencies. This even more so, as the EU customs laws from March 1st 2023 will also require proper declarations in advance.

In many cases where I was contacted for support, it seemed that carriers "lost" the paperwork attached on the outside, and even though it was scanned by the shippers, it was not part of the electronic piles of documents the recipient e.g. inside the EU received for "clearance". Often, it turned out that these electronic files where incomplete, while, upon arrival, everything was in place.

In short, the carriers may add to the problem, too.

As Andy mentioned, we are organising a symposium on this topic at the SPNHC conference, as we can expect that for biodiversity monitoring more material will be shipped, not less.

With best wishes
Dirk

Am 17.02.2023 um 22:14 schrieb Benjamin Hess:
Trina,

I regularly talk with ALL agencies about the importation of biological material. There has been a recent shift with how imports are monitored, and now with US Customs and Border Protection Biological Agents at most main ports of entry, this has required more communication in advance.

The USFWS requires advance notice 48-72 hours before the entry of biological material that they regulate. For newly collected material, communication with the USFWS designated port has led to the USFWS 3-177 being requested in advance. With few exceptions, you must have a 3-177 in hand if you hand-carry material. If you are shipping material, there is sometimes leniency with vendors like UPS, FedEx, DHL. Otherwise, the current expectation is that you have at the minimum a PENDING 3-177 with your documentation. YES, the Code of Federal Regulations states this must be done within 180 days, but the expectation is that it is done in advance now. We have simply shifted our way of thinking - the CFR will most likely not change but the expectation by the USFWS has changed.

I am happy to talk with you more about this to answer any questions, or to help.

Sincerely,

Ben

On Fri, Feb 17, 2023 at 3:52 PM Trina Roberts <troberts at nhm.org<mailto:troberts at nhm.org>> wrote:
Hi colleagues,

We are experiencing some misunderstandings with the local USFWS inspection office about what we do and don't need to do for imports of dried/preserved specimens for taxonomic/systematic research.  These are not anything that would require CITES, ESA, MBTA, MMPA, or other special permitting.  They are not imports from new field work, but specimens from existing collections being loaned to us or being returned to us after a loan.

My interpretation of the situation and our responsibility is:
- The specimens are for taxonomic/systematic research because they are being used in studies that will do such things as naming species and determining evolutionary relationships among species and higher taxa, regardless of whether the identity of these specimens is unknown or what we currently know of their taxonomy.
- We do not have to file a 3-177 and have the shipment cleared before/upon import, because 50 CFR §14.55 (d) says that clearance is not required for such shipments, and 50 CFR §14.62 (d) says we do not have to file a declaration at the time of importation.
- But we do have to file a 3-177 within 180 days after the import, because 50 CFR §14.62 (d) says we must do so "with the appropriate Assistant Regional Director - Law Enforcement"

USFWS's current interpretation is:
- The specimens cannot be for taxonomic/systematic research because they have already been identified to genus, and therefore we know what they are.  The exception for taxonomic/systematic research only holds if the specimens in the shipment are unidentified.  We have managed to talk them into accepting that individual shipments are for taxonomic research after a rejection, but with no evidence that they have changed their overall interpretation.
- Therefore we need to file a 3-177 and have the shipment cleared before import.
- There is no difference between clearance and declaration.  There is no situation when we would be exempt from clearance at import and still need to file a declaration later.  We either need to file before import if a 3-177 is needed, or not file at all if it isn't.

The result of this is that if we DO file a 3-177 after import, it gets rejected and found in violation of the clearance requirement.  If we DON'T file at all, obviously USFWS can't reject the 3-177 but I think we are in violation of the declaration requirement.

I would love to hear from the community whether you agree that a 3-177 is needed for this kind of import, and whether any of you are in fact using these exceptions to file yours post-import, something that in my experience is or at least used to be common for museums.  And, critically: if you are doing that successfully, exactly how does the process go?  Are you filing in eDecs?  Is there some magical way you are filling in the fields that tells your local inspectors that this is an import declaration but the shipment is exempt from clearance?  Are your local inspectors interpreting "taxonomic or systematic research" more broadly than ours, and what are you putting on your forms that makes it clear to them that that category applies?  Are you filing in some way that sends the form not to front-line inspectors whose job it is to clear shipments, but to someone else?  Do they approve your eDecs, and if they do do they mark them as "cleared" even if the import is in the past, or is there some other category they apply?

The local office here is horrendously understaffed and overworked, with a huge amount of commercial wildlife traffic coming through LAX and the port; what we do is a tiny corner of what they're responsible for monitoring.  I'm not surprised that misunderstandings occur, just looking for examples of how this is working better for other institutions with the hope of fixing this before it gets more combative.

Thanks for any clever solutions!  I'm happy to talk more about this one-on-one if that's helpful to anyone or if you need more details (or if you don't want to commit your thoughts to writing).

--Trina

--
Trina E. Roberts, Ph.D.
Associate VP, Collections
Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County
213-763-3330
troberts at nhm.org<mailto:troberts at nhm.org>
she, her, hers
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NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of
Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose
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natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to
society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information.
Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate.

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****

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Collection Manager, Hamburg

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--
Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversitätswandels
Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany

Stiftung des öffentlichen Rechts;
Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Grüter (Kaufm. Geschäftsführer)
Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn
Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael Wappelhorst

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_______________________________________________
NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of
Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose
mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of
natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to
society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information.
Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate.

--
****

Dirk Neumann
Collection Manager, Hamburg

Postal address:
Museum of Nature Hamburg
Leibniz Institute for the Analysis
of Biodiversity Change
Dirk Neumann
Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3
20146 Hamburg
+49 40 238 317 – 628
d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de<mailto:d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de>
www.leibniz-lib.de<imap://dneumann@webmail.leibniz-lib.de:993/fetch%3EUID%3E/INBOX/Privat/www.leibniz-lib.de>

--
Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversitätswandels
Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany

Stiftung des öffentlichen Rechts;
Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Grüter (Kaufm. Geschäftsführer)
Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn
Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael Wappelhorst

--
Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversitätswandels
Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany

Stiftung des öffentlichen Rechts;
Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Grüter (Kaufm. Geschäftsführer)
Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn
Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael Wappelhorst
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