JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. – A photo of a north Florida angler holding a wild dolphin on a beach has sparked outrage online and federal agencies are now investigating.
Experts say getting that close to a dolphin can be extremely dangerous for the animal and harassing or feeding wild dolphins is against federal law.
A photo of the dolphin was posted on Instagram last week. According to Kevin Beaugrand, it was shared with more than 100,000 people on a surfing account.
“I was immediately enraged. It’s a crime against nature,” said Beaugrand.
Beaugrand is an avid surfer in Jacksonville Beach and wanted to do something about it.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, feeding or harassing dolphins violates the Marine Mammals Protection Act.
It is against that law to disturb their behavioral patterns or injure them in the wild.
Jacksonville University Marine Science professor, Dr. Quinton White, says holding a dolphin out of the water could hurt them.
“The dolphin was probably ill to be caught like that. And to put that kind of stress on an animal really is horrific,” said White.
White says marine mammals need buoyancy to breathe, so hoisting a dolphin out of the water can make it very hard for them to draw a breath.
“It may not survive, you know, you didn’t mean to do that. And we won’t know probably for a while whether it made it or not. So, it’s, it was pretty horrific when I saw it. People don’t realize it, they catch them. And they say oh, I want to take pictures and they put it back in the water and they die. Because they’re not used to being out of the water,” said White.
Beaugrand reported the photo to several agencies including NOAA and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and they are now investigating.
If prosecuted, violators of the Marine Mammal Protection Act could face civil penalties, up to about $34,000 in criminal fines and up to a year in prison.
Dr. White says if you see a marine mammal in distress, the best thing you can do is call FWC to let them assess the situation.