May 22, 2003 (GOLD RIVER, British Columbia) — Sandra Bohn will have to cough up $74 after petting a killer whale.
Bohn could have been fined a thousand times as much under the federal Fisheries Act's marine mammal regulations, and whale watchers are on notice that "the sentence next time will be quite different," Judge Peter Doherty said Tuesday.
Police Cpl. Jacquie Olsen said that while the fine was small, the point was made.
"This is the first offense of this kind that's ever been heard in court," Olsen said. "We've set the bar."
Bohn admitted petting a 3-year-old male orca known as Luna, who was separated from his family group and settled in remote waters on the west side of Canada's Vancouver Island.
The fear for Luna has been his growing familiarity with people. Marine mammal experts say touching or petting a whale could change its behavior patterns and lessen its chances of reuniting with its pod, or clan.
Bohn said after the court hearing that residents of this town on the west coast of Vancouver Island have been petting Luna for the last couple of years. She said she was at the wharf on Nootka Sound with four or five others when she was cited Feb. 7.
"I won't be going down there again," Bohn said. You can join Unsolved Mysteries and post your own mysteries or
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