HONOLULU — Defense attorney for a tourist from Washington state accused of throwing a coconut-sized rock at someone The endangered Hawaiian monk seal He says his client was trying to protect sea turtles and has since been physically assaulted, threatened and defamed.
Igor Litvinchuk, 38, of Covington, Washington, is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Honolulu on Wednesday on charges of harassment and attempted harassment of a protected animal.
Earlier this month, a witness recorded what prosecutors said was a video of himself throwing a rock at a Hawaiian monk seal on a Maui beach. He later made arrangements to surrender in the Seattle area, where special agents from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were seeking to arrest him, prosecutors said.
The video sparked widespread condemnation and calls for prosecution in Hawaii, including from the mayor of Maui. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said scientists identified the seal as an adult male known as “R404.”
According to prosecutors, a state Department of Land and Natural Resources official investigated a report of Hawaiian monk seal harassment in Lahaina, a community that had been largely devastated by Deadly wildfires in 2023. A witness showed the officer a video of the seal swimming in the shallow water while a man watched from shore.
The video showed Litvinchuk throwing the rock, which one witness described as the size of a coconut, directly at the seal, severely hitting him in the head, prosecutors said in a criminal complaint.
When a witness confronted Litvinchuk, he said, “He didn’t care and was wealthy enough to pay any fines,” according to the complaint.
Then, a man “brutally assaulted” Litvinchuk, his defense attorney Miles Brenner told The Associated Press. The lawyer said Litvinchuk refused to file a police report about the assault.
Brenner explained that his client had been to Hawaii previously and was familiar with sea turtles, but not Hawaiian monk seals. Litvinchuk is a hunter and believes the seal is an aggressive sea lion, the lawyer said.
“So his reaction was not to hurt this monk seal, but to keep it away from the turtles,” Brenner said.
The incident shows that NOAA must do more to educate the public about conservation Hawaiian monk sealDemocratic Hawaii State Senator Brian Schatz said in a statement.
Since the video surfaced, Litvinchuk has faced death threats and defamation, including receiving a package at his home that contained what appeared to be feces, Brenner said.
He said his client was being treated unfairly because he was a white outsider. “The vast majority of attacks on monk seals and turtles are carried out by local residents,” he said.
Litvinchuk is charged with violating the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
The Hawaiian monk seal is considered an endangered species. Only 1,600 remain in the wild.
If convicted, he faces up to one year in prison on each count. He also faces a fine of up to $50,000 under the Endangered Species Act, and a fine of up to $20,000 under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.