The Galapagos National Park filed a criminal complaint against Li Ping Yan, but has not detained him, a park spokesman said.

The complaint accused Li of possessing and transporting protected species, but did not say when the incident occurred.

Authorities said they found 20 dried seahorses and 37 pieces of an unidentified marine species, possibly a shark, which are protected in Ecuador, in his suitcase.

"When Li Ping Yan was informed that what he was transporting was illegal, he said he had freely acquired it," the complaint said. It was not immediately clear what position Li holds in the Hong Kong administration.

A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Quito told AFP that it had not been involved in the case "because so far we have not received any notification from the government or from the national park."

The Galapagos islands were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1978 because of the number of unique species found on the isolated archipelago 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) off the Pacific coast of South America.

The islands were made famous by British naturalist Charles Darwin, who studied their wildlife during his voyage on the ship, The Beagle, gathering data that would later contribute to his theory of evolution.

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