AnimuX
23-07-2010, 03:58:AM
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/west/view/20100722prosecutors_say_man_intentionally_rammed_h umpback_whales_with_boat/srvc=home&position=recent
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Twice while piloting a jet boat, Kevin B. Carle spotted humpback whales breaching in the waters of Southeast Alaska.
And twice, prosecutors say, he veered toward the cetaceans and intentionally hit them with the speeding boat. Carle, a 44-year-old resident of Craig, was hit this week with a federal misdemeanor in violation of the Endangered Species Act for "knowingly harassing, pursuing and harming whales," according to prosecutors.
There was no indication the whales were killed in the impacts, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Feldis, head of the criminal division. But how seriously they may have been injured remains unknown.
Feldis declined to say why prosecutors thought Carle rammed the whales.
"I would not even want to speculate on the motive," said Julie Speegle, spokeswoman for NOAA Fisheries in Alaska. "Suffice it to say that, according to a witness, it was intentional." The first collision took place on April 1, 2008, while Carle was employed as a boat operator for Columbia Helicopters, a Portland, Ore.-based commercial logging and air transportation outfit that was logging near Craig, according to details of a plea agreement Carle entered into with prosecutors. Carle operated a 34-foot jet boat to ferry loggers and supplies between Craig and the logging camps, the document says.
That spring day, he was carrying employees to a job site in Trocadero Bay when he saw a humpback whale. He veered the boat off its course, aimed at the whale and struck the whale with the boat, according to the plea agreement.
Then on Sept. 12, 2008, Carle was operating the boat on a run between Dall Island and Craig when he saw a whale near Breezy Bay, the documents say.
"Carle turned the boat off course and drove the boat directly toward a humpback whale at a high rate of speed," say the plea documents. "Just as the whale started to dive, Carle knowingly and intentionally hit the whale broadside with the boat." The whales were never found, so whether they were injured and how severely is unknown, Speegle said.
The plea agreement calls for Carle to plead guilty in exchange for two years of probation and a $1,000 fine. A date for the change of plea had not yet been set.
Reached at work on Wednesday, Carle said only that he is taking responsibility for what happened. He declined to offer his rationale for allegedly running down the whales.
"I just want it to be over and done with," said Carle, who no longer works for Columbia Helicopters.
A company spokesman in Oregon directed inquiries to a Portland attorney, Bob Calo, who declined to comment Wednesday.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Twice while piloting a jet boat, Kevin B. Carle spotted humpback whales breaching in the waters of Southeast Alaska.
And twice, prosecutors say, he veered toward the cetaceans and intentionally hit them with the speeding boat. Carle, a 44-year-old resident of Craig, was hit this week with a federal misdemeanor in violation of the Endangered Species Act for "knowingly harassing, pursuing and harming whales," according to prosecutors.
There was no indication the whales were killed in the impacts, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Feldis, head of the criminal division. But how seriously they may have been injured remains unknown.
Feldis declined to say why prosecutors thought Carle rammed the whales.
"I would not even want to speculate on the motive," said Julie Speegle, spokeswoman for NOAA Fisheries in Alaska. "Suffice it to say that, according to a witness, it was intentional." The first collision took place on April 1, 2008, while Carle was employed as a boat operator for Columbia Helicopters, a Portland, Ore.-based commercial logging and air transportation outfit that was logging near Craig, according to details of a plea agreement Carle entered into with prosecutors. Carle operated a 34-foot jet boat to ferry loggers and supplies between Craig and the logging camps, the document says.
That spring day, he was carrying employees to a job site in Trocadero Bay when he saw a humpback whale. He veered the boat off its course, aimed at the whale and struck the whale with the boat, according to the plea agreement.
Then on Sept. 12, 2008, Carle was operating the boat on a run between Dall Island and Craig when he saw a whale near Breezy Bay, the documents say.
"Carle turned the boat off course and drove the boat directly toward a humpback whale at a high rate of speed," say the plea documents. "Just as the whale started to dive, Carle knowingly and intentionally hit the whale broadside with the boat." The whales were never found, so whether they were injured and how severely is unknown, Speegle said.
The plea agreement calls for Carle to plead guilty in exchange for two years of probation and a $1,000 fine. A date for the change of plea had not yet been set.
Reached at work on Wednesday, Carle said only that he is taking responsibility for what happened. He declined to offer his rationale for allegedly running down the whales.
"I just want it to be over and done with," said Carle, who no longer works for Columbia Helicopters.
A company spokesman in Oregon directed inquiries to a Portland attorney, Bob Calo, who declined to comment Wednesday.