This interlocutory appeal arises out of a claim to king crab made by appellants Deep Sea Fisheries and Deep Sea Harvester (collectively, "Deep Sea"). The king crab at issue was caught within the Russian Exclusive Economic Zone ("EEZ") by two Russian vessels, the F/V Deep Sea Harvester and the F/V Lucky Star. The crab was transferred to the M/V Vlada, a Russian transport ship, which transported the crab out of the EEZ to Vancouver, B.C. Deep Sea imported the crab into the United States at Blaine, Washington, where it was detained by United States Customs officials.

The United States brought this action for forfeiture of the defendant 144,774 pounds of cooked, frozen blue king crab for violation of the Lacey Act, 16 U.S.C. § 3372(a)(2)(A). The government alleged that the crab had been taken, possessed, transported, and sold in violation of the fishing and resource protection laws of the Russian Federation. The United States asserted that the M/V Vlada had failed to maintain its vessel monitoring system, which provides information about the location of the vessel and the amount of catch on board, in continuous operation during the time the vessel was in use, as required by Russian law. The M/V Vlada had reported that it was going to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, for major repairs and turned off its monitoring equipment, but subsequent inquiry by United States authorities determined that the M/V Vlada had not undergone repairs at Dutch Harbor and had instead left that port after three days and was crabbing off the books. Russian authorities reported that if the M/V Vlada had taken on the crab in the EEZ, the vessel had violated Russian law because it had not reported the loading or transport of the crab.

Deep Sea filed a statement in response to the forfeiture action claiming an interest in the crab based upon a security interest in the catch of the Russian fishing vessels. Deep Sea also filed an answer to the complaint claiming a lack of knowledge that the crab was caught or transported in violation of Russian fishing laws and raising innocent ownership as an affirmative defense under 18 U.S.C. § 983.

The district court ordered Deep Sea to show cause why the court should not order summary judgment precluding Deep Sea from raising the innocent owner defense based on the government's argument that the such a defense could not be raised with respect to the crab because the crab was, in the words of 18 U.S.C. § 983(d)(4), "contraband or other property that it is illegal to possess." Deep Sea responded that because the crab was not inherently illegal to possess, it was not contraband for the purposes of the innocent owner defense.

The district court granted partial summary judgment in favor of the United States, holding that the crab was contraband and striking Deep Sea's innocent owner defense. The district court reasoned that "contraband" as used in CAFRA "includes both goods that are inherently illegal to possess and otherwise legal goods that have been imported or exported illegally." Deep Sea filed a motion seeking reconsideration of the order, arguing that the district court's construction of the term "contraband" to include illegally imported goods would result in disparate treatment between fish caught in violation of domestic law and fish caught in violation of international law.

Judgment:
The district court denied the motion for reconsideration, but certified an interlocutory appeal of its ruling striking the innocent owner defense pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b).