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HONOLULU — <\/span>The defense attorney for a tourist from Washington state accused of hurling a coconut-sized rock at an endangered Hawaiian monk seal<\/a> says his client was trying to protect sea turtles and has since been physically assaulted, threatened and doxed. <\/p>\n Igor Lytvynchuk, 38, of Covington, Washington, is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Honolulu Wednesday on charges of harassing and attempting to harass a protected animal. <\/p>\n Earlier this month, a witness recorded what prosecutors say was a video of him throwing the rock at a Hawaiian monk seal at a Maui beach. He later made arrangements to surrender in the Seattle area as special agents with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were seeking to arrest him, prosecutors said. <\/p>\n The video drew widespread condemnation and demands for prosecution in Hawaii, including from Maui\u2019s mayor. Scientists identified the seal as an adult male known as \u201cR404,” NOAA said. <\/p>\n According to prosecutors, a state Department of Land and Natural Resources officer investigated a report of Hawaiian monk seal harassment in Lahaina, the community that was largely destroyed by a deadly wildfire in 2023<\/a>. A witness showed the officer video of the seal swimming in shallow water while a man watched from shore. <\/p>\n The video showed Lytvynchuk throwing the rock, described by a witness as the size of a coconut, directly at the seal, narrowly missing its head, prosecutors said in a criminal complaint. <\/p>\n When a witness confronted Lytvynchuk, he said \u201che did not care and was \u2018rich\u2019 enough to pay any fines,\u201d according to the complaint. <\/p>\n Afterward, a man \u201cbrutally assaulted\u201d Lytvynchuk, his defense attorney Myles Breiner told The Associated Press. Lytvynchuk declined to file a police report on the assault, the attorney said. <\/p>\n Breiner explained his client had been to Hawaii previously and was familiar with sea turtles, but not Hawaiian monk seals. Lytvynchuk is a fisherman and thought the seal was an aggressive sea lion, the lawyer said.<\/p>\n \u201cSo his response was not to hurt this monk seal, but to get it away from the turtles,\u201d Breiner said. <\/p>\n