Alaska commercial fisherman could get 6 months in prison for trying to kill sperm whale

Federal prosecutors are recommending that an Alaska fisherman serve six months in prison, pay a $25,000 fine and be banned from commercial fishing for a year after lying about fishing catches and trying to kill an endangered sperm whale.

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

According to court documents, Daniels became infuriated in March 2020 when a whale began taking fish from his longline fishing gear and damaging equipment.

This kind of behavior has been seen for decades across Alaska’s coast, but prosecutors say this is the first time in Alaska that a fisher has attempted to kill a whale in retaliation, and it may be the first time nationally.

[Previous reporting: Decades ago, sperm whales learned how to raid fishermen’s lines of black cod. Now, an Alaska man is charged with killing one.]

“Daniels’ behavior evidences a total disrespect for whales and the laws that protect them,” prosecutors wrote.

According to messages sent on 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 one message, Daniels wrote that he “wish(ed) (he) had a cannon to blow the f***** out of the water.”

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

That was a reference to the COVID-19 emergency closure of offices in March 2020, at the time of the messages.

Federal officials don’t 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 qualifies as “taking” an endangered whale, in violation of the Endangered Species Act.

Prosecutors are asking that in addition to the fine and prison term, Daniels be sentenced to community service and supervised release for three years. If he resumes commercial fishing after his one-year ban, prosecutors ask that he be subject to additional monitoring.

The sentence has been referred to magistrate Matthew McCrary Scoble for consideration.

Originally published by the Alaska Beacon, an independent, nonpartisan news organization that covers Alaska state government.