I'll play the other side. There's been a huge problem with people shooting nonlegal moose and sheep in AK recently.
Imagine someone being $8K into a one in a lifetime DIY moose hunt and they're looking at a squeaker in the scope on the last day knowing that they can roll the dice on it either being legal or if it's sublegal they can just turn it in and be rewarded for their cooperation and only pay $2k. I don't need to ask the question to the group if they think the hunter in this case is more or less likely to shoot or not shoot depending on $$ associated with the punishment. Same with some guy that's on his last year living in AK and has a squeaker sheep in the scope. He knows that he either gets his sheep or pays $30K another time. If his fine is only a couple grand if he turns himself in on "good faith", is it worth rolling the dice? Probably. Imagine someone from the east coast just made a massive financial and time sacrifice to hunt in Wyoming this fall and sees and article where some guy shot a grizzly in the spring and was only charged $500 when he turned it in. Is he gonna be more or less likely to identify his target if the article he read said $500 or $10,000? Properly identify your target and be damn sure it's legal before pulling the trigger. I respect the man for turning himself in.
They need to exponentially increase punishment for people that are not self reporting or purposely poaching.
I think we're almost all in agreement that if he (or anyone) is the type of person that does it again, he wasn't fined enough the first time. I don't agree at all with the augment that this will make people less likely to self report, especially when the fine for that is a felony and in the six figures. You never know who is watching you in the mountains, who saw you at the trailhead, etc.