Man Sentenced and Fined for Shooting Sea Otters

A commercial fisherman was sentenced to 75 days in prison and fined $2,000 Friday for shooting at sea otters, a threatened species, during a boating trip off the Central California coast.

Bruce Magnusen, 36, of Cambria was the last of three men to be sentenced for the sport shooting in Estero Bay, northwest of San Luis Obispo, on Aug. 9, 1987.

Magnusen, who had taken two friends out on his boat, spotted a group of the furry mammals feeding on kelp in the bay and suggested they “blow away some otters,” prosecutors said. Grabbing his rifle, Magnusen fired at the animals and convinced one of his friends to shoot too.

A dead sea otter was found nearby several days later with a bullet wound in its head.

Oil Spill

Magnusen’s lawyer, William MacCabe, had suggested that it would be fitting for Magnusen to join the crews cleaning up the oil spill in Alaska as his punishment.

But U.S. District Judge Richard A. Gadbois in Los Angeles rejected that proposal without comment and imposed the prison term and fine.

Magnusen pleaded guilty in March to one count of conspiracy to hunt, capture or kill sea otters and one count of shooting at the animals, which are classified as a threatened species under federal law.

“I’m very remorseful for what I’ve done, and I just want to say it would never happen again,” Magnusen told the judge.

Otters are native to the West Coast. More than 18,000 once inhabited the waters off California before fur-trading reached its peak in the mid-1800s, but only about 1,800 remain now, said Carol Fulton, spokeswoman for Friends of the Sea Otter, a nonprofit conservation group based in Carmel.

Two Others Plead Guilty

Magnusen’s friends, two Cambria men, also pleaded guilty. David Perry, 21, was fined $3,000 and ordered to perform 500 hours of community service for shooting at the otters. William Walker, 31, was fined $1,500 for steadying the boat so the others could get better shots at the otters.