Anti-whaling group representatives said three of the five Makah men who fatally shot and harpooned a gray whale in September got off too easy with a federal plea bargain that gives them five years probation and 100 hours of community service each.
“On probation from what?” said Kitty Block, vice-president of Humane Society International, the international arm of the Humane Society of the United States, from Washington, D.C.
“Probation means you should not be able to engage in activities you undertook when you violated the law. . . If they’re not prevented from using weapons and from whaling, what is their probation?”
Frankie Gonzales, Theron Parker and William Secor Sr., all of Neah Bay, on Thursday accepted a federal offer of no jail time in return for pleading guilty to one misdemeanor count each of violating the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act.
Under the plan, each must perform 100 hours of community service during the first year of five years probation.
Whether they will pay fines that could reach $100,000 each will be decided at a sentencing hearing June 6.
Two other Neah Bay men who killed the whale Sept. 8 in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Wayne Johnson and Andy Noel, declined the federal offer, deciding instead to go to trial.
Trial date is set for April 8 in federal court in Tacoma.
The two will be tried on misdemeanor charges of two violations each of the Marine Mammal Protection Act — one of conspiracy to violate the act and the other of actually doing it — each of which carries a maximum one-year jail sentence and $100,000 fine.
