Dead dolphin found on Louisiana’s West Mae’s Beach with bullets lodged in brain, spine and heart as NOAA offers $20,000 reward

Wildlife investigators in Louisiana are still searching for whoever shot and killed a young dolphin whose body washed up riddled with bullets on the state’s coast. The juvenile bottlenose dolphin, a young female, was found on West Mae’s Beach in Cameron Parish on March 13, 2024, after a member of the public spotted the carcass and alerted the Southeast Marine Mammal Stranding Hotline. The grim truth emerged during a necropsy carried out by Audubon Aquarium Rescue, a stranding-network partner of NOAA, at the Audubon Nature Institute in New Orleans: bullets were lodged throughout the animal’s body, including in its brain, spinal cord and heart, and it appeared to have died from that trauma at or near the time it was shot.

NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement opened an investigation and is offering a reward of up to $20,000 for information that leads to a criminal conviction or the assessment of a civil penalty against whoever was responsible. Anyone with information can call the NOAA Enforcement Hotline at 800-853-1964; tips may be left anonymously, though a name and contact information are required to be eligible for the reward.

It is worth remembering that under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, signed into law in 1972, it is illegal for anyone to intentionally harass, harm, kill or even feed wild dolphins. Penalties for violations are steep, reaching up to $100,000 in fines and as much as a year in jail per offense.

Marine experts say the loss is felt well beyond a single animal. Dr. Moby Solangi, president of the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies, has noted that dolphins live in tight-knit communities and that killing one can disrupt an entire family structure. The waters off West Mae’s Beach sit near Barataria Bay, Louisiana’s largest estuary and home to a year-round bottlenose population that scientists already consider threatened. After the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the bay’s dolphin numbers fell sharply, with many animals suffering reproductive failure and illness tied to oil exposure, leaving an estimated 2,000 dolphins in the bay as of recent surveys.

No arrest has been announced in the case, and NOAA continues to ask the public for help. The agency notes that anyone who comes across a stranded or injured marine animal should report it to the Southeast Marine Mammal Stranding Hotline so trained responders can assist. For more reporting on threats facing wildlife and the oceans, see The Aegis Alliance’s Environment coverage.