Federal prosecutors are now charging a Washington state man accused of throwing a rock at a Hawaiian monk seal.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Hawaii said Tuesday that Igor Lytvynchuk, 38, is charged with violating the Endangered Species Act and violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act by “taking” the monk seal.
He was charged “by information,” meaning that a grand jury was not involved, according to a Justice Department document. Mr. Lytvynchuk was previously charged via criminal complaint and arrested in Washington state on May 12.
If Mr. Lytvynchuk is found guilty, he faces one year in prison for each charge, along with a fine of up to $50,000 under the Endangered Species Act, a fine of up to $20,000 under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and a fine of up to $100,000 under the Criminal Fine Improvements Act, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
The two federal laws define taking as either attempting to or actively harassing, harming, hunting, killing, pursuing or wounding a protected species, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
Mr. Lytvynchuk, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Ukraine, according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, is accused of throwing a rock at a seal that was playing with a log on a beach in Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui on May 5.
The rock narrowly missed the seal, and when confronted by bystanders, Mr. Lytvynchuk said that he was “rich enough to pay the fines,” federal prosecutors said. The seal initially reared up and then lay immobile.
Mr. Lytvynchuk’s lawyer says his client’s actions are being misunderstood. Defense attorney Myles Breiner told The Associated Press that Mr. Lytvynchuk thought the seal was a sea lion going after sea turtles on the beach.
Mr. Breiner told the AP that his client’s response “was not to hurt this monk seal, but to get it away from the turtles.” Mr. Breiner also said Mr. Lytvynchuk was being targeted for being White and an outsider, telling the AP that “the vast majority of attacks on monk seal and turtle are by locals.”
Neither of the two sea lion species in the directory of the National Marine Fisheries Service, also known as NOAA Fisheries, is found in Hawaii. Both species are covered by the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and the Steller sea lion found in Alaska and on the West Coast is also covered by the Endangered Species Act.
Hawaiian monk seals are protected under the two aforementioned federal laws, as well as Hawaii state law. The total population of Hawaiian monk seals is about 1,600, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.
The seal was previously identified by federal prosecutors as a female named Lani, but the seal involved was actually an adult male called R404, the National Marine Fisheries Service scientists found, according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
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