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ANCHORAGE - The Alaska Court of Appeals has upheld a 30-day jail term given to a Kodiak man convicted of illegally guiding a hunting party in 2006.

Randy Blondin, 51, also must pay $7,000 in fines and spend five years on informal probation.

Blondin was charged with several violations after being accused of leading hunts around Kodiak Island for Sitka black-tailed deer, bear and other game. He appealed his conviction on a number of grounds, including that the jury verdicts against him were inconsistent.

The appeals court merged two convictions for guiding a hunt without proper supervision but let the remaining convictions stand, said Assistant Attorney General Andrew Peterson.

Authorities said Blondin did not have a guiding license. Instead, he had a transporting license to take clients to where they could hunt on their own.

Peterson said the case is significant because Alaska has seen an increase in the number of saltwater-based transporters offering hunts for black bears.

"While the transporters are not legally allowed to spot game, they will oftentimes motor along the beach slowly allowing the clients to look for bears as opposed to simply motoring to a destination to drop off their clients," Peterson said in an e-mail to the Anchorage Daily News. "The ruling in Blondin makes it clear that such activity is illegal and can be prosecuted."

During the 2006 hunt, Blondin spent time in the field as an employee of his wife's business, Kodiak Charters in Larsen Bay, actively pursuing Sitka black-tailed deer on his clients' behalf by drifting along Harvester Island.