Updated: 1 days ago Published: November 8, 2024

federal prosecutors I recommend An Alaskan fisherman was sentenced to six months in prison, paid a $25,000 fine and banned from commercial fishing for a year for lying about his catch and trying to kill an endangered sperm whale.

Dugan Paul Daniels pleaded guilty to a federal misdemeanor earlier this year, and prosecutors released sentencing recommendations Tuesday.

According to court documents, Daniels became enraged in March 2020 when a whale began taking fish from the longline and damaging equipment.

Such behavior has been seen off the coast of Alaska for decades, but prosecutors say this is the first time a fisherman has attempted to kill a whale in retaliation in Alaska and may be the first nationwide.

(Previous reporting: Decades ago, sperm whales learned how to attack fishermen’s rows of black cod. Now an Alaska man is accused of killing someone.)

“Daniels’ behavior demonstrates a complete disregard for whales and the laws that protect them,” prosecutors wrote.

According to messages sent from the GPS unit, Daniels instructed a crew member to shoot the whale, tried to ram it with his fishing boat, then tried to kill it by swinging his fishing rod when it became trapped inside the whale.

“I wish he had a ball that would pop out of the water,” Daniels wrote in one message.

After one of the recipients of his message warned Daniels that killing a whale was a federal crime, Daniels replied: “The feds are shut down and I don’t care.”

This was a reference to the emergency closure of offices due to COVID-19 in March 2020 at the time the messages were published.

Federal authorities do not know whether Daniels successfully killed the whale. No dead sperm whales were seen in Southeast Alaska at the time of the incident. Regardless, prosecutors say the incident is considered a “taking” of an endangered whale in violation of the Endangered Species Act.

Prosecutors are requesting that Daniels be sentenced to community service and supervised release for three years, in addition to the fine and prison time. Prosecutors are demanding that he be subject to additional supervision if he continues commercial fishing after the one-year ban.

The sentence was referred to magistrate Matthew McCrary Scoble for consideration.

Originally published by Alaska SignAn independent, nonpartisan news organization covering the state government of Alaska.