(ARGENTINA) — Argentine officials seized 709 marine animals at Ezeiza International Airport after intercepting an illegal shipment from Kenya, with many of the animals already dead or in severe distress.

The shipment contained 102 species and had spent about 120 hours in transit inside plastic bags, a period that left many of the animals in critical condition by the time authorities opened the cargo.

Authorities said the load included surgeonfish, pufferfish, lionfish, butterflyfish, octopuses, crabs and starfish, underscoring the scale and variety of the seizure. The case drew attention because it involved both the volume of animals and the breadth of species moved through an international airport.

Argentina’s Environmental Control Brigade joined customs officials, the agricultural health agency, IFAW and Fundación Temaikèn in a coordinated rescue effort after the shipment arrived. Teams spent more than 28 hours on rescue and triage.

Officials found the animals packed in plastic bags, a common method in trafficking cases involving live aquatic species. After roughly 120 hours in transit, the packaging conditions had already taken a visible toll.

The seizure at Ezeiza International Airport also placed the spotlight on the mechanics of wildlife trafficking, where live animals can be moved across continents in tightly packed shipments before inspection teams have a chance to intervene. In this case, the journey began in Kenya and ended with Argentine authorities trying to salvage as many animals as possible.

The figure of 709 marine animals gives the case unusual weight, but the diversity of the cargo may be just as striking. A shipment involving 102 species raises separate handling issues during rescue, since different fish and invertebrates can require different conditions to survive after transport stress.

That complexity helps explain why the response stretched beyond a single agency. Environmental enforcement officers, customs personnel, agricultural health authorities and animal welfare groups all took part, with IFAW and Fundación Temaikèn involved alongside state agencies as crews sorted, assessed and triaged the animals over more than 28 hours.

Cases like this feed wider concern over the illegal wildlife trade, which can hit conservation efforts by removing animals from ecosystems and pushing vulnerable species through high-mortality supply chains. They also carry biosecurity concerns, since live animals moved outside legal channels can bypass normal health controls.

Marine species present a particular challenge because survival depends on temperature, oxygenation and handling conditions that can deteriorate quickly during long transit. Packing hundreds of animals in plastic bags for about 120 hours left little margin for survival.

The seizure also showed how airports have become front-line enforcement points in wildlife cases that combine customs violations, animal welfare concerns and environmental regulation. Once the shipment reached Argentina, the immediate task shifted from interception to emergency care for animals that had arrived in visibly poor condition.

Officials now face the broader questions that typically follow a case of this scale: who organized the shipment, how it moved from Kenya to Argentina, and whether gaps in screening or documentation allowed it to travel as far as it did. The interception at Ezeiza International Airport turned those questions into an active enforcement matter.

Public attention often settles on the numbers first, and in this case the numbers are stark: 709 marine animals, 102 species, about 120 hours in transit and more than 28 hours of rescue work after arrival. Behind those figures sat bags filled with surgeonfish, pufferfish, lionfish, butterflyfish, octopuses, crabs and starfish, many of them dead before the shipment could be opened.

The case is likely to sharpen calls for stronger detection, tighter controls on wildlife shipments and more public awareness about the trade in exotic marine animals. At Ezeiza International Airport, the seizure ended with officials counting losses, separating survivors and confronting the damage already done.