WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
A huge cash reward awaits for anyone who can help catch those responsible for the gruesome killing of a dolphin in Florida. Multiple cases of dolphins washing up on beaches after being shot have arose over several months.
Authorities have offered a huge reward after three dolphins were found brutally killed in a matter of months.
Late last week, biologists at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission found a dead dolphin shot to death off the coast of Naples.
The find sparked a major investigation into what happened after an animal with bullet holes in it washed up on a Pensacola beach.
The case isn’t the only of it’s kind in the area after a dolphin with similar wounds was found that same week.
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The organisation are currently offering a staggering sum of reward money for any information that leads to civil penalties or criminal convictions for those responsible.
The reward currently stands at the huge sum of $20,000 (£15,478) in order to find those responsible.
The NOAA recently uploaded images of the slaughtered dolphin in a bid to get a lead on who could be responsible.
One graphic image showed one of the dolphins killed in an execution-style hit.
The animal can be seen with a large round bullet hole in the right side of its head below the eye.
Biologists have warned the recent spate of dolphin deaths could come from people illegally feeding the mammals.
According to the experts, feeding the dolphins may prompt them to associate humans and boats with food.
This leads the mammals to put themselves in potentially dangerous situations as they think they are going to be fed.
Local marine life experts in Florida have warned the public not to feed alligators, raccoons, or any other wildlife in the area, whether native or not.
Similar incidents have been taking place in Japan, as disturbing footage of dolphins being slaughters emerged in recent months.
Footage surfaced showing a pod of dolphins being coerced into a cove and then slaughtered in a town, called Taiji, in Japan.
The video shows blood red waters as a team of divers and fishermen herd and kill 32 striped dolphins in a cove for an annual Japanese dolphin hunt.
The hunters, who attempted to hide their actions underneath canopied tarps, chased the pod of dolphins into the cove on fishing boats, where they then drew nets across the mouth, trapping the animals inside.
According to the Daily Mail, the video was captured in February 2019 by Dolphin Project, which campaigns to end the annual Taiji hunts.
The hunters began by chasing the sea creatures into the cove by lowering metal poles into the water and then banging on them with hammers, which creates a “wall of sound” that disorients the dolphins, before trapping them inside with a net.
The animals were then ushered towards the back of the cove, where the hunters had suspended large beige tarps over the water to shield themselves from photographers as they began to slaughter the 32 striped dolphins.