Alaska fishermen sentenced for killing endangered sea lions

By DAN JOLING
Associated Press
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – An Alaska salmon boat skipper has been fined $20,000 for killing endangered Steller sea lions with shotguns.

Federal prosecutors say 31-year Jon Nichols was sentenced Tuesday to five years’ probation, three months of home confinement and 400 hours of community service.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Smith also ordered him to publicly apologize in a national commercial fishing magazine.

Smith sentenced 21-year-old crewman Theodore “Teddy” Turgeon to four years’ probation, one month of home incarceration and 40 hours of community service. He was fined $5,000.

Federal officials investigated after 15 Steller sea lions in 2015 were found dead at the mouth of the Copper River.

Nichols and Turgeon in June pleaded guilty to illegal take of marine mammals.