A Scarborough food business has been fined for importing and selling frozen snakehead fish from Vietnam. The snakehead fish is listed as a prohibited invasive species in Ontario. In a court bulletin on Thursday, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources said conservation officers were conducting commercial fisheries inspections in the Scarborough area in January 2025. During an inspection at CK Frozen Fish and Food Inc., the officers discovered five cases of frozen snakehead fish, which is a prohibited invasive species in Ontario. The cases, which had been imported from Vietnam, were subsequently seized, the ministry said. The business and its directors, Rakin Niloy from Scarborough and Mohammed Rahman from New York, were charged and later found guilty of importing and selling prohibited invasive species. As a result, the business was fined $6,000, while the directors were handed a $15,000 fine. According to the government, the snakehead, which is native to southern and eastern Asia, could seriously threaten native fish and invertebrate populations in Ontario, as it has no natural enemies in North America. The fish is also highly adaptable and could thrive in the Great Lakes, the government said.
