A Warren man was sentenced to three days behind bars and ordered to pay a $1,000 fine after pleading guilty to shooting a seal off the coast of Acadia National Park.

Joseph Martin, 54, pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court in Bangor to taking a federally protected marine mammal, a misdemeanor.

Martin was acting as captain of a fishing boat in Oct. 2016 when a group of seals approached his vessel.

“The defendant retrieved his rifle and began to shoot at the seals in the ocean,” Acting U.S. Attorney Richard Murphy said in a statement. “After the shooting took place, one seal could be seen floating in the water with a dark liquid surrounding its body.”

According to court records, Martin fired at either a harbor seal or a gray seal.

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