Dolphins being shot, maimed in northern Gulf of Mexico

Authorities hope to catch the person or group responsible for the shooting and maiming of Atlantic bottlenose dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico.

There have been six recent strandings in all. The latest was Friday on Deer Island, Miss., where a team from the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies found a dolphin with the lower portion of its jaw missing.

The previous weekend a dolphin carcass was found with a bullet wound caused by a 9-milimeter weapon.

"It went through the abdomen, into the kidneys and killed it," Moby Solangi, IMMS executive director, told the Associated Press.

Recently off Louisiana, a stranded dolphin was found without a tail.

"Animal's don't eat each others tails off," Solangi told the Sun Herald. "We think there's someone or some group on a rampage. They not only kill them but also mutilate them."
 
Scientists have responded to four strandings involving dolphins that were either shot or mutilated.

NOAA has issued a "heads up" directive, alerting officials to be on the lookout for an increase in human interaction with dolphins off Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

Commercial and recreational fishermen, likewise, are asked to report suspicious activity.

Solangi said it remains a mystery as to why this is happening and added that dolphins in the northern Gulf Coast  are already under significant stress because of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010.

--Image is courtesy of the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies