BRADENTON, FL — Two dolphins that died from apparent gunshot wounds were discovered in Florida waters more than 600 miles apart in recent weeks along the Gulf of Mexico. The discoveries led federal wildlife officials to offer a reward of up to $20,000 and issue a warning against feeding dolphins to prevent similar “acts of intentional harm like these” in the future.
“Since 2002, at least 29 dolphins, including these, have stranded in the Southeast U.S.,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Law Enforcement said Tuesday in an advisory. “There is evidence they were shot by guns, or arrows or impaled with objects like fishing spears.”
Brittany Baldrica of the Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge in Navarre, Florida told Patch her organization discovered one of the dolphins Jan. 27 on the Gulf Coast side of Pensacola Beach.
“Whenever we find a deceased marine mammal, we bring them to our facility and we conduct a necropsy, which is an animal autopsy,” she said. “When we opened up this animal, we immediately saw a metal fragment in the muscle layer on the left side.”
A NOAA law enforcement officer verified the dolphin had been shot.
“Unfortunately, in the northern Gulf of Mexico, we have a lot of people who do harm to marine mammals,” Baldrica said. “We have a lot of people who will hand-feed dolphins because they think it’s fun — but then, due to this, dolphins rely on humans for food and they will beg at boats.”
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Biologists from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission discovered a dead dolphin late last week in Naples, Florida. That animal also may have been shot.
A third dolphin was discovered in May off Florida’s Captiva Island suffering from a fatal puncture wound to its head.
Baldrica said the playful dolphins have been known to take fish from the lines of fishermen and scare away fish.
“Fishermen, obviously get really upset with this because some of them, it’s their livelihood,” she said. “We’ve had dolphins shot with guns. We found bullets. We found bow and arrows.”
NOAA officials believe the incidents are the result of people feeding dolphins from boats, making them more likely to approach boaters.
“Dolphins fed by people learn to associate people and boats with food, which can put them in harmful situations,” the NOAA advisory said. “Dolphins may suffer fatal impacts from boat strikes, entanglement in or ingestion of fishing gear, and acts of intentional harm like these.”
It is a violation of federal law — specifically, the Marine Mammal Protection Act— to harass, hunt, kill or feed wild dolphins. Violators risk fines up to $100,000 along with up to one year in jail per violation.
A Kansas man was recently fined $1,250 for feeding a dolphin while vacationing in Florida.
In 2009, a fishing captain was given a jail sentence after throwing homemade pipe bombs at dolphins, according to NOAA.
To report a tip, call the NOAA Enforcement Hotline at 800-853-1964. Tips may also be left anonymously.