Border Dispute: Hunters Fined $37,000 For Crossing 27 Feet Into The Yukon

 OH, CANADA! 

Three Hunters Fined For Wandering 27 Feet Across The Canada Border While Sheep Hunting In Wrangell-St. Elias In August, 2022 

NPS map of Wrangell-St. Elias Park with notation by Country Journal. 

That's $1,370 Per Foot 

Three Americans have been fined $37,000 by Yukon officials after shooting two Dall sheep on the Canadian side of the Alaska-Canada border.

The hunters – Nathan Eberle, Kenneth Eberle and Justin Nagel – pleaded guilty to hunting without a Canadian permit 27 feet across the border from Wrangell-St. Elias Park – in the Yukon.  

According to a December 13th, 2024 story on CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) Kenneth and Nathan Eberle are a father and son, and Justin Nagel is a friend. 

The trio were flown in from Tok to High Culvert Camp in Wrangell-St. Elias Park near the border. They hiked to the east of the camp a short distance, saw two Dall sheep, and killed them. Nathan Eberle shot one sheep, Kenneth Eberle shot and wounded the other, and then the third man, Nagel, shot and killed the injured sheep. 

Unfortunately, it turned out (the CBC story continues) that the dead sheep were "8.3 meters" across the Yukon border and not in Alaska.

Yukon wildlife officers, flying the kill site at the time, recovered a quarter and portions of meat from the sheep, and when the hunters returned to Tok a few days later on August 16th, 2022, U.S. Park Service officers met them, and seized their sheep meat, guns and other equipment. The story said it was unclear how authorities on both side of the border were alerted to the infraction. 

The three men were charged $10,000 each for hunting in Canada without a permit, and the Eberles were each charged $3,500 for wasting meat.