The U.S. federal agency NOAA Department of Fisheries offers a $20,000 reward for people who provide information about tourists who harass stranded dolphins on Texas beaches and cause their deaths.
In mid-April, the female bottlenose dolphin was stranded on Quintana Beach in Texas while the dolphin was still alive. Tourists push it back to the sea and try to swim with it. After the dolphin ran aground on the beach again, it was harassed by some tourists and tried to ride on it to take pictures, and eventually died on the beach.
Harassment, injury, killing, or feeding of wild dolphins is prohibited under the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act, with a fine of up to $100,000 and up to 1 year in prison per violation. The Texas Marine Mammal Stranding website, a nonprofit group, says the harassment can cause undue stress on wild dolphins and is illegal. After the bounty, officials have obtained videos that can identify the tourists involved in the event.
Dolphin strandings, common causes are injury or illness, and may have difficulty breathing, so stranded dolphins should not be pushed back to sea. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the dolphin's autopsy indicated it had died of drowning.
