May 11, 2005: Nancy Black was featured on a "TODAY" segment fulfilling a woman's dream to see whales in the wild.
By msnbc.com staff and news services
A noted marine biologist and owner of a California whale-watching company faces charges that she illegally fed orcas, or killer whales, and lied?to investigators.
Nancy Black, who has appeared on numerous documentaries and TV shows, including NBC's "TODAY," was indicted Wednesday by a grand jury.
The indictment alleges she fed a killer whale in April 2004 and again in April 2005 while taking people on a boat tour via her company,?Monterey Bay Whale Watch.
Monterey Bay, located in northern California, is in federally protected waters, where it is illegal to feed a marine mammal in the wild.
She allegedly also lied?to investigators when she gave them a video from an October 2005 trip, the indictment stated. They suspect a humpback whale might have been harassed during the trip and that?the video was altered.
Black's attorney, Lawrence Biegel,?told sfgate.com that?federal investigators are trying "to make an example of Nancy" and that what she did was not criminal.
He told the Associated Press that Black had provided the edited video not knowing investigators wanted the uncut version.
As for the feeding allegations, he?told AP that?Black had collected a piece of gray whale blubber that was floating in the sea, cut a hole so a rope could be fed through it, and dropped it back into the ocean. The idea was to keep the blubber close to the boat so Black could use a?camera to film the killer whales eating underwater, he said.
"In the specific incident in question, Ms. Black used an underwater camera and filmed the eating habits of killer whales who were feeding off free floating pieces of blubber from a gray whale that had been killed by a pack of killer whales," Biegel said.
"She was never hiding what she did or how she did it. In fact, she was acting with the knowledge of other marine mammal scientists, some of whom work for agencies of the federal government," he said. Biegel said Black had a permit granted by the federal government to conduct the research.
Black could receive a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a half million dollars in fines if found guilty of lying. Each of the feeding charges carries a maximum penalty of a year in prison and a $100,000 fine. While these are the maximum sentences allowable by law, courts generally do not impose the maximum, instead relying on guidance from the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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