Endangered monk seal
I was saving nearby turtles, says man accused of throwing rock at endangered monk seal.

Tourist filmed throwing rock at endangered seal’s head says “I was saving the turtles”

"He assumed that when he saw the seal, the monk seal, pushing the turtles off of the rocks, that he was doing something good by scaring it away."

The Ukrainian-born US citizen, Igor Lytvynchuk, 38, who was filmed throwing a rock at an endangered monk seal’s head on Maui and subsequently beaten up by a furious local, has explained, via his lawyer, that he was merely protecting a couple of nearby turtles.

“There were two large turtles in the water. When he threw the rock, the intention was to scare the seal away. He had no idea, again, the significance of monk seals. He frankly didn’t know we had seals in Hawaii,” the man’s attorney, Myles Breiner esquire, told Hawaii News Now. 

“He assumed that when he saw the seal, the monk seal, pushing the turtles off of the rocks, that he was doing something good by scaring it away… He’s devastated at the notion that people thought he wanted to injure the seal.”

As for his lickens, “He was beaten pretty badly. There were no broken bones, but yeah, he had welts all over his back, his head, shoulders,” the attorney said. 

Igor fronted a Seattle court over the incident last Thursday  after he was charged with violating the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

A judge released Igor on a personal recognizance bond, ordering him to surrender his passport ahead of a May 27 court appearance in Honolulu, Hawaii News Now reported.

If convicted, he faces up to one year in prison on each charge and fines of as much as $70,000.

Igor is also exploring donations to wildlife protection efforts, according to his attorney.

“He’s going to pay the price,” Breiner said. “We’re not going into court and saying no, he didn’t do this, but there’s always an explanation.”

Defense attorney explains why rock was hurled at endangered monk seal
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ricmatic

I believe him. but im a flat earther and a creationist

Tom House

Did Indigenous Hawaiians eat monk seals? I have to assume they did.

Kaimuki_Dawg

Not as much as youʻd think. Although mentioned in some stories, the monk seals were largely absent from a lot of Hawaiian stories/folklore. I believe the reason is the majority of the population lived in the NW Hawaiian islands (pupped on those remote beaches) but over the past few decades they have been moving to the main islands to pup. No idea why, though….

Hippy
Picard Madeoff

The questions that need to be answered are numerous but suffice to say, all US politicians are trading with insider information paired with many of their appointees. This is frustrating but fair to say after a very quick review of the trades tells me his folks are following the herd with the majority of the trades. The below link breaks down some of the trades:
https://www.davemanuel.com/2026/05/14/trump-278t-filings-3711-trades-may-2026/

I wonder if this lawyer placed the same scrutiny on Pelosi’s trades over the last decade much less drilled down into the timing of the Trump trades versus potential insider information that led to the trades?

Hippy

Most politicians can’t manipulate business. They’re just following information, not creating environments.

Trump took CEO’s to China on Air Force One and sold their products, enriching himself in the process.

Love the Pelosi bullshit. There are literally a cadre of criminals pointing the finger at her for doing the same thing. Prosecute them all.

Picard Madeoff

I agree they should all be prosecuted. Where you and I disagree is with respect to the influence politicians and political appointees possess at all levels from city councilmen all the way up to President and how they use their power for personal financial gain. They have manipulated business, whether publicly traded or privately held companies, since the beginning of time while collecting monetary benefits. Using Pelosi as the example she(just like Trump) have access to materially non-public information and have shown a willingness to use it for personal gain and for the gain of business leaders and those who donate to their campaigns. I have the professional pleasure(or displeasure) of seeing this from the front row and it pisses me off from so many angles that I cannot share on these pages. So while you and I would be prosecuted by DOJ after the SEC referred us over for doing exactly what they do with zero repercussions I’m currently watching some of this in real time with no avenue to expose the problem without putting myself in a tough spot.

If we’re lucky, Trump’s kids will face scrutiny along with Pelosi and all others during our lifetime

Michael Flatlately

Not a lot of following their careers post stepping away from parliament, either. Many go into senior roles at orgs they enabled, even funded. Our most recent former finance minister, who – quite rightly – channeled much of the federal budget into tertiary education, is now Vice-Chancellor of a major university.

Hippy

Not a bad defense, lawyer is a thinker

Hippy

You are much more insightful with politics and spot on

Donny went for a favor. Can you imagine what that favor was, SC?

He opened Nvidia up to Chinese manufacturing, once considered top secret American and proprietary

What he doesn’t add is that he doubled his investment in the AI chip company BEFORE he made the trip. He’s gaming the market in real time. Cursory look at his other wildly successful gambits and one realizes quickly that he invests in something, changes or opens regulation to that product or service, then reaps the reward of an early buy in and govt contract that exponentially rewards him for manipulating the market. Most corrupt official in history.

And the next part is coming…. he’s going to turn a blind eye on Taiwan. Not if, when.

Rocks local

he’s got a new fish to ride

@TheRealJackMeoff
Rocks local

nice!! fish grit!

BograilCutback

that thing looks unreal, yes please.

ricmatic

very nice

ricmatic

sung to the tune of “ticket to ride”

Sean Connery

I get being an American Maga but imagine being an Australian MAGA like Chief Hot Stuff.

Chief Hot stuff

I like lottsa seppos, kelly
, Lana del ray,
Kamala harris , joe biden.

Sean Connery

You mean joe rogan, charlie kirk, ben shapiro, alex jones, kid rock, megyn kelly.

Chief Hot stuff

Kamala 28!

Hippy

Had an event planner introduce me to a little girl…. she wanted her friends to shoot photos in front of my work. I knew the planner and gave permission. The little girl was very pleasant, as were her small friends.

One of the girls was stunning and taller. Knock out sexy. Lana Del Rey. Course I had no idea who she was, but her dress was so sexy.

Michael Flatlately

One of them is surely Canadian

Eric Growth

Yet he obviously didn’t see Splinter coaching Raphael’s Spawn training with the Seal.

Com Turren

looking like this weekend might some waist to chest high waves.

Firelipe Torpedo

The “I like turtles” defense

deeks

The chewbakka defence an the I like turtles defence. ” it was not there ” it
was
not
there

RQ.

no chance.
everyone was at my local today though:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DYd_ELYCY0c

Rocks local

great pics, surfing looked better at your local than it does in the contest

Picard Madeoff

How was graduation, interaction with the ex, the bars and of course the pay raise?

Rocks local

all good, thx for asking — managed to survive w/ max interaction w/ kid and minimum w/ ex , whirlwind few days. Weather was sensational, thankfully.

got to hang out w/ GT daughter quite a bit too, she crushed her freshman year — all A’s across board (on full plate of math/engineering classes), already has offer for fancy internship after next year w/ group you would recognize–to follow your naming convention, maybe Fink Madeoff??

so great trip — as you know always nice to see the offspring outpace their old man

NEGATRON

What did the Ex do to make you hate her soo much?

Rocks local

hate is a strong word ! that’s a hard one to answer, at least with anything short of a novel.

I’ll say this — I hit some very choppy waters after the split. At one point even considered whether it would be better to just end it all. But never, not for one tiny millisecond, did I ever consider going back.

Patrick Henry got it right.

NEGATRON

Good times aye! I laugh now, but yes that car hitting the rock wall at 140 kms per hour did cross my mind.

Rocks local

ha, only a fellow survivor knows the feeling!!

Picard Madeoff

Love the grad weekend and Fink(congrats to her) recap. I don’t recall if I shared the naming convention with you previously but here it is:
Picard- Irving Picard of BakerHostetler
Madeoff- Made off with trustee fees from the Madoff clawbacks. I cannot confirm or deny any significant knowledge related to that event.

Rocks local

yep, I actually floated the naming theory to you a few months ago and you confirmed I hit it.

I guess Fink has made off in a number of ways, all of them pretty profitable

Picard Madeoff

I could go on for hours about the sordid benefits… never mind 🙂

Rocks local
Chief Hot stuff
Picard Madeoff

I cannot think of a campus more stately in the US than UVA. Looking out at cville from the roof of the Apex plaza building is rather impressive

Rocks local

definitely … although someone said as much to my daughter this weekend and she quickly corrected them: “it’s not a campus, it’s ‘the Grounds.’ “

ha!!

Picard Madeoff

UVA confidence is real!

Rocks local

that’s one term for it, lol

Picard Madeoff

On the pages of BG I will always attempt to be a gentleman.

Beef & Beer

Well that’s solved that then, Igor’s obviously innocent, so case dismissed and a hearty “Lytvynchuk for PETA President”.

Now with any luck the guy who bashed this ‘champion of the turtle’ will face the full force of the law for taking said law into his own hands, shame on him, shaaame…

Save the turtles, shoot the seals !

Happy Camper

best thing about Hawaii is the little distractions that have everyone clamoring “get that fuckin’ haole” whilst the fuckin haole in the government fuck the people of Hawaii.
corrupt judges there to please whist stuffing the envelope under their sleeves.

SOH governor and Maui County officials should be brought up on Human Rights violations and Homocide charges for what they did in Lahaina.

Hippy

Please continue counselor…..

velobwoy

Ideally they would have been strung up in public. Unfortunately we live in this shit world.

channelbottom

I told my boss at lunchtime, that I had to go look at a house around 4pm.
He was fine with that.
Technically I did look at a house.
The house I use as a line-up marker, as I caught the last hour of daylight with off-shores.

Cousin Smedley

Throw the book at him but don’t miss

deeks

🤣🤣

Occy's Nostril

Poor cunt probably thought it was some Russian amphibious weapon. Or just fucked up on drugs and alcohol.

Rich Marx

As a kid whenever I got into trouble my mom would make the punishment way worse if she caught me lying after the fact. Pretty glad she did that in hindsight.

NEGATRON

Yip, thats always been my style. Ok, you’re in a little bit of trouble now, which we can easily get through and deal with right now, but if you bullshit me now you’re about to be in shit ton of trouble which will turn into a world of drama” Your choice.

Michael Flatlately

As a fellow longtime rock/bolder point surfer, I know you’ve thrown something at a seal before.

NEGATRON

Shoot em, like the All Black.

Anon

Punch a great white in the nozzle if its about to eat a seal

deeks

I pushed Tyler off a cliff once. I was saving her from herself. Didn’t work but.

I am a Crayfish Popsicle

Oooffffff

WTF man?

Occ Topus

It’s the thought that counts.

Speaking of which…
I was working on Maui last week. Seen on a Tundra bumper in Lahaina: “No Aloha Here” and “Fuck Your Vacation”. 😆

The Bitchy Crab

Although not inconceivable. Monk seals do eat turtles, afterall.

deeks

What so deprive the creature of a meal ! Where’s your monkmanity!

FlintyBadman

Huge manatee?


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