Unalaska, AK – A factory trawler crew member was sentenced to a brief prison term and a $1,000 fine after pleading guilty Monday in federal court to sexually harassing a fisheries observer last spring.

Eduardo Ornelas-Morales will serve 15 days' jail time and one year of probation for the incident, which took place onboard the trawler Unimak in April 2006. An affadavit filed in court alleges that Ornelas tried to kiss the observer on multiple occasions. He later pulled at her clothing and tried to grope her, at which point she reported the incident to the captain and the deck boss, according to the affadavit.

Ornelas was arrested in Unalaska on April 30 by special agents from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Office for Law Enforcement.

"Any [observer] incidents we receive, they're of highest priority to us, and we'll follow up any investigating allegations we receive," said Mike Adams, NOAA's assistant special agent in charge for the Bering Sea region.

The Unimak was fishing in the Bering Sea west of St. Paul at the time of the incident.

This is the second Bering Sea observer sexual harassment conviction in the past month. On April 11, Enrique Reynaldo Deras, a Utah man working on the Frontier Mariner, was sentenced to 60 days in prison on similar charges.

Nor is Ornelas's conviction the Unimak's first run-in with NOAA law enforcement. In 2004, two members of the ship's crew were sentenced to four months in jail and $50,000 in fines and restitution for underreporting halibut bycatch. The ship's owner, Unimak Fisheries LLC, was also fined.