Nantucket lobsterman investigated for illegal sale of a whale skull
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
Nantucket lobsterman Dann Pronk being investigated by the National Marine Fisheries Service for the alleged sale of a skull of a one-year-old humpback whale he brought up in his lobster gear the fall of 2006.

The 1-year-old humpback whale skull that Pronk hauled up near Muskeget is similar to this one.

Pronk allegedly sold the humpback whale skull to an undisclosed party for

2,500 shortly after bringing it to the surface and back to the island, according Environmental Police Officer Sgt. Dean Belanger of the Massachusetts Division Fisheries and Wildlife, who made the initial discovery of Pronk's sale, and Special Agent Todd Nickerson of the National Marine Fisheries Service within the National Oceanographic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Sgt. Belanger said Pronk could be charged with illegal possession of marine mammal parts, a violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 and the Endangered Species Act of 1973.

If convicted of knowingly possessing the whale skull, Pronk could get up to a year in jail and/or a fine up to $20,000. Even unknowing possession of the whale skull could bring a fine of $10,000, Sgt. Belanger said.

"It is illegal to possess whale parts if there is no permit if it's after 1972, and it's certainly after 1972, and there is certainly to be no selling, bartering, or exchanging, and the reason being is there would be a market created for those parts," said Sgt. Belanger, who added that it appears that Pronk did not knowingly haul the whale skull to the surface. "From what I understand, he brought it up in his lobster line or his trap line; it got entangled."

For his part, Pronk said he was unaware that keeping and not reporting the humpback whale skull was illegal. He hauled up the skull with the winch on his lobster boat about 100 yards west of Muskeget Island with the warp of his lobster gear entangled in one of the skull's eye sockets.

Pronk described the skull as bone white, about five feet across and around seven feet long, and remarked that it did not stink at all, theorizing that it had been tumbling around on the bottom for quite some time. Nickerson, who is handling the investigation for National Marine Fisheries, could not say whether it died during Nantucket's whaling era or in the recent past.

After realizing that it was a whale skull, Pronk hauled it aboard. Back in Madaket Harbor, he quickly got an offer from a man on the pier. Pronk gladly accepted $2,500 for his sea treasure, given the time of year and his lack of knowledge about the significance of his catch.

"Upon coming in from lobstering, there were a couple of people hanging around the pier, and this man who said he knew a woman in Madaket who would buy it, asked me if I wanted to sell it, and it being a month-and-a-half before Christmas, and me not knowing it was illegal, of course I sold it," said Pronk. "If I had known it was illegal, I certainly would have returned the thing to the water."

Several days later, Pronk said he learned of the severity of his transgression and called the woman he sold the skull to to see if he could buy it back and make things right. But, according to Pronk, the buyers, who he described as prominent Nantucketers with an extensive collection of whale bones both inside and outside their house, would not give up the skull. Pronk said he could not disclose to The Nantucket Independent to whom he sold the skull.

When he is done with his investigation, Nickerson will turn his evidence and information over to National Marine Fisheries Service lawyers. He said he is skeptical of Pronk's assertion that he did not know keeping whale parts was illegal.

"The reason why this case has made it as far as it did is we had knowledge that the fisherman knew the transaction was not legal," said Nickerson.

Pronk said it is easy for him or any Nantucketer to believe that possessing whale parts is not a crime, as many islanders display whale bones on their property.

"You look around this island and people have whale bones hanging from their houses; they're all

over the place." I