Judge sentences 4 men for 2015 walrus deaths

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Four Alaska men who shot several walruses without keeping the meat and caused stampedes that killed about two dozen more animals have been sentenced to three years of probation, $1,000 restitution and 500 hours of community service.

Federal prosecutors announced on Thursday that Adam Sage, Michael Tuzroyluk, Guy Tuzroyluk, and Jacob Lane also will be banned from hunting walrus for a year. All four men are from the village of Point Hope.

Walrus use sea ice as a platform for diving to reach clams and sea snails on the ocean floor. A lack of sea ice in recent years has forced walrus to instead rest on shore in late summer. An estimated 35,000 walrus were photographed in September 2015 near Point Lay.

Grouped shoulder-to-shoulder, walrus can be crushed in stampedes if startled by an airplane, hunter or polar bear.

A few weeks later, a person connected to an Air Force radar station photographed more than two dozen dead walrus at Cape Lisburne, 370 km northeast of the Bering Strait. Only Alaska Natives who live in the state may hunt walrus. Walrus killed only for ivory is illegal.

Federal prosecutors in September charged the four Point Hope men with misdemeanours in the case. All were qualified to hunt marine mammals for subsistence purposes.

Prosecutors said the men made two hunting trips to Cape Lisburne, where up to 1,000 walruses were on shore. They shot several walruses and salvaged only the tusks. Stampedes that followed the shootings killed or injured at least two dozen more walrus.