A sperm whale is seen in an undated photo published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (NOAA photo)
A federal judge in Juneau has sentenced a Southeast Alaska fisher to six months in federal prison after pleading guilty last year to one count of misreporting a fish catch and one count of violating the Endangered Species Act for directing his crew to kill a sperm whale.
Dugan Paul Daniels had previously agreed to the sentence as part of a plea agreement, and Judge Timothy Burgess confirmed the imposition of sentence in a hearing Monday morning.
The six-month sentence was at the top of the sentencing range allowed by the plea deal and in line with what prosecutors had requested.
While it isn’t clear whether Dugan Paul Daniels’ crew successfully killed the whale after Daniels ordered them to shoot it, federal law prescribes the same punishment for an attempted kill and an actual one.
In addition to the prison sentence, Daniels will pay a $25,000 fine and be banned from commercial fishing for one year. He also must perform 80 hours of community service.
According to court filings by prosecutors, Daniels was fishing in Southeast Alaska waters in March 2020 when a whale began taking fish from his fishing gear, damaging it. Similar behavior has been seen up and down Alaska’s coast, but prosecutors believe this is the first time that a fisher has tried to kill a whale in retaliation.
According to messages sent via his GPS unit, Daniels directed a crew member to shoot the whale, tried to ram it with his fishing boat, then tried to kill it by reeling in his fishing gear while the whale was trapped in it.
In a written statement about the sentencing, newly appointed Alaska U.S. Attorney Michael Heyman said, “Let this sentence serve as an example that these violations will not go unpunished.”
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