Three Southeast Alaska fishers have been charged with deliberately sinking their vessels and creating marine obstructions, the U.S. Attorney’s office for Alaska said.
The three cases, concerning events in Sitka Sound, Sitka Harbor and Thomas Bay near Petersburg, are unrelated, said Reagan Zimmerman-Hartzheim, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office.
The defendants are John Fisher of Sitka, Joseph Poling of Petersburg and Toni Vanveen of Sitka.
Each defendant faces a single federal misdemeanor charge: obstructing navigable waters by sinking a vessel. The charge carries a mandatory minimum penalty of 30 days’ confinement and can also result in a sentence of up to a year in federal prison and a fine of up to $25,000 for each day the sunken vessel is in the water, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.
The U.S. Coast Guard and Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation have been investigating the cases, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
The charges were filed in each case on Feb. 20. Details of the cases were sealed as of Thursday. The three defendants are scheduled to be arraigned on March 13 in U.S. District Court, according to court documents.
None of the defendants had an assigned attorney as of Thursday, according to court documents.
At least one of the vessels appears to have been involved in a previous sinking. The F/V Igloo, owned by Fisher, sank in Sitka waters in 2012, according to the National Park Service. That sinking prompted a Coast Guard response intended to prevent spilled oil from reaching the Indian River estuary and impacting Sitka National Historical Park, the agency said then.
