Recent killings of common dolphins along the coast of California are puzzling officials. To date five dolphins have been washed ashore, the first with damage to its’ pectoral fin, another then another with a fatal bullet wound – within a week three more dolphins were washed up which had been shot through the head.

Officials in San Diego county have stated that dolphin shootings are a fairly rare occurrence. Throughout the entire USA usually there is one report per year of this type of incident and the last time this happened in San Diego was five years ago. Necropsies carried out on the animals have shown that all dolphins were healthy and had eaten shortly before being killed – apparently all at the same time, with the same weapon; four of the animals had between one to three bullets, all of the same calibre in the same area of the head.

NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) are responsible for enforcing the Marine Mammal Protection Act 1972. Under the Act, it is a crime to harass or kill dolphins or other marine mammals and NOAA is offering up to $2,500 reward for further information on who is responsible for the shootings. If found, the killers face a civil penalty of up to $12,000 and criminal fines of up to $20,000.

Director of Marine Connection, Margaux Dodds commented; “The upsurge in fatal shootings of wild dolphins is alarming; we had a case recently in Australia and now these latest shootings in the USA. Although there is no evidence as to why or who was responsible for these killings, it is widely known that fishermen have been known to shoot marine mammals coming too close to their nets, however this could also have simply been a case of someone using the animals as target practice. The Marine Connection sincerely hopes that the reward offered by NOAA will serve as incentive for someone to come forward and will help find the person(s) responsible to enable them to be brought to justice for this hideous crime”.

image (c) NOAA