Charges Brought in Sea Lion Shootings

Authorities charged a Harbor City charter boat captain Monday with shooting sea lions near Catalina Island after witnessing the incident in an undercover operation.

John Gary Woodrum was accused of two misdemeanor counts of shooting a marine mammal with a rifle, in violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

In court documents, federal authorities described the incident and its background.

While out on the charter vessel Pursuit on Oct. 13, four passengers said, they saw the boat’s captain, Woodrum, fatally shoot three California sea lions and wound two others with a .22-caliber rifle.

The fishing trip was organized by San Pedro-based 22nd Street Sportfishing, according to the court documents.

Authorities said Woodrum, described by authorities as between 35 and 40 years old, attracted the attention of investigators because of his brazenness.

“These charges are not brought often,” said Jim Milbury, a spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the federal agency that launched the investigation. “But it sounds like he was pretty open about it.”

Federal undercover investigators chartered the vessel Sunday, and when it dropped anchor off Catalina Island, they saw Woodrum shoot several sea lions.

“At approximately 10:15 a.m., as the vessel was anchored at a second fishing spot,” wrote Tim Broadman, one of two agents that arrested Woodrum, in an affidavit filed Monday. “I heard eight to 10 gunshots. I also saw the splashes of sea lions as they were swimming rapidly away from the vessel.”

At another point during the trip, investigators overheard Woodrum boasting to the ship’s cook that he managed to shoot one sea lion three times.

The agents, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, arrested Woodrum, but said he had thrown his rifle overboard. They recovered several spent .22-caliber casings and one unfired round on the vessel.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act was enacted in 1972 to protect marine mammals and their habitat.

Under the act, any per- son who knowingly harms or harasses a marine mam- mal could be punished by up to a year in prison, a $20,000 fine or both.