We've spilled a fair amount of virtual ink in the last few weeks on people and their interactions with wildlife. Vacation season is starting up, even way up here in the Great Land, and people are out there where the deer and the antelope - and the bears, and bison - play. Sometimes they do dumb things that get them hurt.

This story is different, though, and is rather baffling, as it involves a fishing boat operator, who we should think really ought to know better; he tried to ram a sperm whale with his boat and ordered crew members to try to shoot it:

A Southeast Alaska troll fisherman has agreed to plead guilty to a federal misdemeanor after admitting that he directed the shooting of a sperm whale northwest of Sitka in March 2020.

According to federal court filings, fisherman Dugan Daniels ordered a member of his crew to shoot the whale and tried to ram it with his fishing boat, the Pacific Bounty. 

Daniels also agreed to plead guilty to a felony for lying about a sablefish catch in fall 2020, according to the text of the plea deal. His attorney declined comment on the case.

The first question that comes to mind is, why? Sperm whales feed mainly on squid and octopuses, and so don't really present any threat to a commercial fisherman's catch. There's no indication the whale was behaving aggressively, although one could hardly blame it for going all Moby Dick on the Pacific Bounty after the ramming attempt.

Dugan Daniels will, instead of meeting old Ahab's fate, be facing some fines and jail time:

Under the terms of the agreement, Daniels will pay a $25,000 fine and be sentenced to no more than 6 months in prison, with the exact term to be set by a judge. 

Daniels also will perform 80 hours of community service, and if he owns, operates or manages a commercial fishing boat in the future, it must be monitored by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

What isn't given is the why, but then, as the late Paul Harvey often said, "...if you could understand something like that, we'd have to worry about you."

See Related: Vacation Season Cautions: Large Animals Can Be Dangerous 

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Daniels did give some details of the attack:

According to the plea deal, Daniels recounted his encounter with the whale, “specifically, his crew shooting the sperm whale, his efforts to ram the whale with the vessel and coming within five feet of doing so, and his desire to kill the sperm whale,” in text messages to multiple people.

The document isn’t clear about whether the whale survived the encounter.

We can hope the whale came through this unharmed, although we have no way of knowing. From all available information, the whale didn't do anything other than go about its usual business; this attack by a man who makes his living on the sea is just baffling.

And to Dugan Daniels, I can only give this caution to bear in mind what happened to old Ahab in the end:

Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee. Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool! and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale! Thus, I give up the spear!

The moral of that story? Don't mess with sperm whales!