Researchers pay $9,000 for intruding on Alaska sea lions

[Arctic Dave]

This is an odd story.



A science consortium has agreed to a civil penalty of $9,000 for intruding into Alaska waters that were declared off-limits to protect endangered Steller sea lions.

But an attorney for the group, which included participants from Vanderbilt, Rutgers and Pittsburgh universities, took strong exception to a federal agency linking the scientists to the killing of a sea lion by Alaska Native hunters who were with the researchers.

The Office of Law Enforcement for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Tuesday in a news release that it had reached a settlement with the researchers for the "unpermitted take of a Steller sea lion."

Rutgers attorney Robert P. Roesener said that could be called "defamatory."


http://www.adn.com/2011/09/13/2066098/researchers-pay-9000-for-intruding.html