CBC News Posted: Jun 15, 2017 10:03 AM ET

Four hunters from Minnesota have pleaded guilty and were fined a total of $10,000 for illegally hunting moose in northwestern Ontario.

A statement from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry stated that the men were hunting in the Sioux Lookout, Ont., area in October, 2016 when conservation officers received a complaint. Investigators found that two men shot and killed a bull moose from a boat while fishing on Pipette Lake.

Neither man was licensed to hunt bull moose in Ontario, according to the ministry. Another member of their hunting party was, but he was more than 25 kilometres away at the time and took about seven hours to find the animal and attach his seal.

All members of the hunting party gave false information when contacted by conservation officers, ministry officials said.

As a result, one man from Sauk Centre, Minn., was fined $1,500 for discharging a firearm from a motorboat and $3,500 for unlawfully hunting bull moose without a licence. He also received a two-year hunting suspension.

A man from Melrose, Minn., was fined $1,800 for unlawfully attaching his adult game seal to a moose killed by another person and $1,000 for making false statements to a conservation officer.

Two other men from Sauk Centre were fined $1,200 and $1,000 respectively for making false statements to a conservation officer.