Man Pleads Guilty to Selling Seal Parts - AP

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Man Pleads Guilty to Selling Seal Parts

By MARY PEMBERTON, Associated Press Writer
1:02 AM PDT, June 20, 2007

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A man who once agreed to help conserve
fur seals has pleaded guilty to illegally selling their parts.

Michael Richard Zacharof, former president of the Aleut Community
of St. Paul Island Tribal Government, co-signed an agreement with
the National Marine Fisheries Service in 2000 to help manage
northern fur seals. Northern fur seals are designated a "depleted
species" under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Zacharof, 50, of St. Paul Island, entered his plea by telephone in
a hearing held Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Anchorage. St. Paul
Island is located about 300 miles west of the Alaska mainland in the
Bering Sea. Its 460 residents are mostly Eskimo or Aleut.

-snip-

Federal prosecutors say Zacharof illegally sold more than 100 seal
penises to a Korean gift shop in Anchorage, where they were to be
resold for about $100 apiece in the traditional Chinese medicine
trade.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-seal-parts,1,181003.story