Case Details:

Four Gambell hunters charged with illegally taking walrus in a May 2003 incident will avoid jail sentences after reaching plea agreements in Fairbanks.

In a federal court hearing held more than 700 miles east of their homes on the Bering Sea island of St. Lawrence, brothers Merle Apassingok, 38, and John Apassingok, 36, and brothers Farrell Iyakitan, 54, and Emmanuel Iyakitan, 40, each pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor charge of unlawful taking of a walrus.

All were sentenced to three years on probation, while John Apassingok and Farrell Iyakitan--the only two of the defendants with prior criminal convictions--will have to serve two months of their probationary terms under house arrest. The four were also fined $1,000 each.

"You've made some mistakes and now you're paying the price," U.S. District Court Judge Ralph Beistline said.

The men faced much harsher penalties for the incident, in which they violated federal law by bringing back a number of walrus heads and tusks from a hunt without salvaging enough of the animals. But in an unusual statement, Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Cooper said he believed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department was partially to blame due to a lax policy on marine mammals that has encouraged walrus poaching.

"The United States of America has to accept a portion of responsibility for this," he said.  According to the facts of the case, as agreed upon by both sides, the four defendants, a fifth man--33-year-old Daniel Apassingok, who was tried separately--and a pair of youths were all on a hunt in the Bering Sea about 19 miles northwest of Gambell on May 21, 2003, when they came upon an ice floe with an estimated 150 walrus on it.

"They began firing into this herd of walrus, pretty much all firing at the same time," Cooper told the court. "When they stopped shooting, they realized they had killed too many walruses."

By federal law, Alaska Natives are allowed to hunt walrus and keep the tusks, but must also salvage a significant portion of the animal. But Cooper said the May 21 haul was too big for the boats--even when another pair of boats arrived to share in the bounty. So the hunters removed the heads of 27 walruses but only kept a minimal amount of the meat. He said some of the walrus carcasses were pushed into the sea, while a later aerial survey found 16 headless carcasses still on the floe. They also took 15 calves, which are more commonly eaten.

The men were charged by federal agents with taking the walruses unlawfully, then transporting the illegal kill, with the latter violation a felony. The two Iyakitan brothers also faced charges they sold some of the tusks.

In addition, Daniel Apassingok, who had a prior assault conviction, faced a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm. His case was separated from the others and heard in Anchorage, where he reached a plea agreement and was sentenced on Jan. 5 to three years in prison.

Cooper said the single violation to which each defendant pleaded guilty to would normally carry a prison term of around 1 1/2 years. But the veteran prosecutor took issue with the Fish and Wildlife Service's policies on marine mammals, which deem that a walrus has not been poached if the hunter salvages the flippers, heart, liver, breastbone and some rib meat. Cooper said the policy has long allowed Natives to kill walruses for their valuable tusks while still being able to discard much of the animal.  "The result, quite frankly, has been the starting up of a black market in ivory," he said.

Cooper said he considers the policy a violation of the intent of federal law and has ordered it changed. Each defendant was ordered to assist in up to 25 hunter meetings as part of their sentence and Cooper said those meetings will go toward letting hunters know of the changes in policy.

All four hunters offered apologies for their behavior during the three-hour court hearing, which was complicated by the number of defendants and the limited command of English of some of them. On the other hand, Merle Apassingok--a whaling captain, Gambell's boy's basketball coach and a member of its school board--spoke at length.

"I want to say sorry that I'm even standing before you," he said. "I want to say sorry to the people of Gambell and my family."

Beistline said the waste of the walruses needed to be punished. But he ultimately offered more compliments than harsh words and said he felt the men understood the importance of wildlife conservation.  "I recognize that this was, in large part, a mistake that got out of hand," he said.

Reference:

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner