Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
Federal authorities are investigating the violent deaths of at least six bottlenose dolphins along the northern Gulf Coast this year, CNN reports.
The dolphins were shot and stabbed; in one case, jaw of one of the dolphins was cut off, according to CNN.
The Marine Mammal Protection Act makes it a crime to kill dolphins. Scofflaws face up to one year in prison and up to $20,000 in fines.
In an unrelated case, a man was convicted of throwing pipe bombs at dolphins.
“I can’t explain why anyone would shoot a dolphin,” Jeff Radonski, a Florida-based special agent for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told CNN.
