2 Men Charged With Crossbow Attack on Baby Sea Lion

With any luck, Arrow, the sea lion, is blissfully plying the waters off the Northern California coast today, feasting on anchovies and sardines -- unaware that the long arm of the law has finally caught up with her alleged attackers.

In Los Angeles federal court Thursday, prosecutors charged two men, a sport fishing company and its vessel with responsibility for hooking and then shooting the 5-month-old marine mammal through the neck with a crossbow in Morro Bay last November.

Discovered thrashing about on a dock the next day, the arrow protruding from its neck, the sea lion was taken to the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito. Veterinarians there removed the arrow and a large fishing hook lodged in its throat. After three months of convalescence, Arrow, named by her rescuers, was returned to the ocean off Pt. Reyes.

“No matter how you look at it, this was a despicable and vicious crime,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. Joseph O. Johns, who filed the misdemeanor charges against the four defendants under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

“Mammals, such as sea lions and sea otters, cannot be hunted for game or sport. They are federally protected species, and our office will aggressively prosecute those who violate the law,” the prosecutor said.

Named in the complaint were Matthew Lyon, 38, of Morro Bay; Anthony Hill, 18, of San Diego; Cavanaugh Sportfishing Inc., of San Diego; and its charter vessel, the Pacific Queen.

Lyon and Hill each face a maximum of one year in jail and a $100,000 fine if convicted. The corporation and the vessel, whose representatives have agreed to plead guilty, will pay a fine of $6,200.

Lyon runs a bait-selling business aboard a barge at Morro Bay. An investigator from the National Marine Fisheries Service said Lyon had been angry because sea lions attacked his underwater cages containing bait “so he decided to teach them a lesson.”

On Nov. 4, Lyon bought a crossbow intending to kill a sea lion, according to Roy Torres, a special agent with the fisheries service. Lyon then enlisted the help of crewmen aboard the Pacific Queen, which was moored next to the barge.

Torres said the Pacific Queen’s crew had themselves been fishing for sea lions “for the fun of it, if you can call it that.” He said they snagged about 10 sea lions with heavy-duty fishing hooks, then watched the animals try to wriggle free.

That’s how Arrow got hooked, Torres said. Hill, a crewman aboard the Pacific Queen, reeled her up from the water, enabling Lyon to fire his crossbow at close range, the investigator added.

Although left to die, the baby sea lion managed to survive because the arrow had missed vital blood vessels, said Jennifer Witherspoon, a spokeswoman at the Marine Mammal Center.

“She was very, very emaciated when we got her, but she responded well during her recovery and convalescence,” Witherspoon said. On Feb. 7, Arrow was taken to Pt. Reyes, a haven for sea lions, and returned to her natural habitat

Arrow’s plight is not unique. Witherspoon said about 50 sea lions are brought to the marine mammal facility each year with wounds inflicted by humans, often shotgun injuries.

In January the center treated another brutalized sea lion, this one for a fractured jaw and buckshot wounds.

“There are some rogue individuals out in the world who do it for sadistic reasons,” Witherspoon said. “And there are those, a handful but not all, fishermen, who regard sea lions as the enemy, competing for the same catch they are.”

Finding violators is no easy task. It took five months and the work of about a dozen investigators from an assortment of federal, state and local agencies to track down those accused of trying to kill Arrow.

Torres said the team also received assistance from the public after it announced a $1,500 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction. “Someone did come forward,” he said. “Their tip enabled us to crack the case.”

Hill and Lyon could not be reached for comment Thursday. William Cavanaugh, owner and captain of the Pacific Queen, said he decided to enter a guilty plea “because I probably would go bankrupt” fighting the charges in court.