Alumnus, DEC Captain to Present on Undercover Investigations
SUNY Cobleskill Fisheries and Wildlife alumnus Capt. Michael Van Durme `75 will discuss his role in Operation Shellshock, an undercover investigation he conducted for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) on Monday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. in Bouck Hall’s auditorium.
Operation Shellshock began with reports of black market trade of New York reptiles and amphibians, including some protected species, concerned DEC officials. Division investigators identified significant illegal buying and selling of native New York species on the Internet, at large organized herpafauna shows across the country and through members of wildlife organizations. Throughout 2007-08 Van Durme and his team worked to penetrate the illegal trade markets, identifying snakes and turtles being shipped out of the country to high-end collector and food markets in China, Europe and Canada.
The operation spread to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Alabama, Louisiana, California, Florida, Canada, Hawaii, and Maryland, and included covert operations with Pennsylvania DEC, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Environment Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. In March 2009 DEC’s Division of Law Enforcement, district attorneys in Livingston, Genesee, Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk counties, the Western District of the United States Attorney General’s Office, and the USFWS charged 21 individuals and businesses with crimes against wildlife. More than 2,000 violations, 31 misdemeanors and 34 felonies were documented by New York’s covert investigators. Operation Shellshock has become the largest, most successful undercover wildlife operation the DEC has ever completed.
Van Durme of Dansville worked his way up through the DEC ranks, starting out as a senior wildlife technician and in 2007 was promoted to captain of the Region 8 Bureau of Environmental Crimes Investigations. Since becoming an environmental conservation officer he has worked on countless investigations. Van Durme coordinated the four year investigation against Safety-Kleen, which involved waste oil and hazardous waste crimes in 13 states and two provinces in Canada, and involved 15 other enforcement agencies in the US and Canada. Van Durme teaches numerous courses for the DEC and is one of the lead instructors at the International Academy of Hunting Related Shooting Investigations. Throughout his tenure with the DEC he has published several research papers and magazine articles on hunting related shootings and invented the measurement of visibility device that is used to document visibility in the woods at a scene of a hunting related shooting investigation.
