Federal wildlife authorities have opened an investigation into a grisly discovery on a Jersey Shore beach: the partial remains of a dolphin that, according to a marine animal rescue group, “appeared to have been butchered.”
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s law enforcement division is investigating the death of the dolphin, whose carcass was found last Wednesday, an agency spokeswoman said on Tuesday. She declined to comment further.
The investigation began after the Marine Mammal Stranding Center, a rescue, rehabilitation and release organization in Brigantine, N.J., received what it described in a social media post as a “very disturbing call.” Partial dolphin remains, the group wrote, had been discovered on the beach in Allenhurst, just north of Asbury Park.
“When our stranding coordinator arrived,” the group wrote, “he found a common dolphin that appeared to have been butchered. The animal’s flesh had been completely removed with clean cuts from a sharp instrument, leaving only the head, dorsal fin and flukes. The animal’s organs, except for the heart and lungs, had been removed.”
The common dolphin is not endangered or threatened in the United States, according to NOAA, but it is protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
With some exceptions, the act prohibits the “take” of marine mammals, which is defined as the harassment, hunting, capturing, collecting or killing of the animals in U.S. waters or by U.S. citizens on the high seas. Violations can be prosecuted civilly or criminally and are punishable by up to $100,000 in fines and up to a year in jail for each violation.
NOAA opened an investigation this spring after a dead juvenile bottlenose dolphin that appeared to have been shot was found on a Louisiana beach. A necropsy revealed several bullets lodged in the animal’s carcass, including in its brain, spinal cord and heart.
The agency offered a reward of up to $20,000 for information leading to a criminal conviction or the assessment of a civil penalty in the case. The status of the investigation was not immediately clear on Tuesday.
As for the dolphin in New Jersey, the night before its remains were found, the stranding center wrote, a live common dolphin was seen struggling in the surf a block away. Witnesses reported that the animal had managed to make it over a sandbar and back out to open water. It was unclear whether it was the same dolphin.
Sheila Dean, the center’s director, said in an interview that on average, the organization responds to roughly 150 calls each year about marine animals that had washed ashore in New Jersey.
Most of the incidents involve sea turtles or seals, though the group also handles calls about dolphins and whales. This year has been particularly busy, with about 200 strandings, about half of them seals, Ms. Dean said. An overwhelming majority of the animals do not survive.
The dolphin carcass found in Allenhurst, she said, was a “pretty horrific” sight.
“I’ve never seen anything quite that severe,” said Ms. Dean, a former dolphin trainer who started the rescue group with her husband, Richard Schoelkopf, in 1978.
The remains were brought to the stranding center’s offices, where they were documented and photographed by staff members. The carcass was then buried on the beach, Ms. Dean said.
With so little left of the dolphin, its age was unclear, as was whether it was male or female, Ms. Dean said. A necropsy could be challenging because of the lack of tissue, she added.
Ms. Dean said that fishermen had told her they had seen fish do similar damage to one another, but she believed that what happened to the dolphin had been the work of one or more people.
It is possible, she said, that someone butchered the animal for food, although that would be risky given the toxins and diseases it may have been carrying.
More likely, she said, the death was the result of an act of brutality.
“I know people can be very cruel,” she said.
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