Skip to content
All articles
  • All articles
  • About whales & dolphins
  • Create healthy seas
  • End captivity
  • Green Whale
  • Prevent deaths in nets
  • Scottish Dolphin Centre
  • Stop whaling
Fishers' involvement is crucial. Image: WDC/JTF

When porpoises and people overlap

We're funding a project in Hong Kong that's working with fishing communities to help save...

Mindful conservation – why we need a new respect for nature

'We should look at whales and dolphins as the indigenous people of the seas -...
A dolphin called Arnie with a shell

Dolphins catch fish using giant shell tools

In Shark Bay, Australia, two groups of dolphins have figured out how to use tools...
Common dolphins at surface

Did you know that dolphins have unique personalities?

We all have personalities, and between the work Christmas party and your family get-together, perhaps...
Leaping harbour porpoise

The power of harbour porpoise poo

We know we need to save the whale to save the world. Now we are...
Holly. Image: Miray Campbell

Meet Holly, she’s an incredible orca leader

Let me tell you the story of an awe-inspiring orca with a fascinating family story...
Humpback whale. Image: Christopher Swann

A story about whales and humans

As well as working for WDC, I write books for young people. Stories; about the...
Risso's dolphin at surface

My lucky number – 13 years studying amazing Risso’s dolphins

Everything we learn about the Risso's dolphins off the coast of Scotland amazes us and...

Another dolphin found shot in the Gulf of Mexico

WDC has reported on the growing number of incidents of dolphin vandalism in the Gulf of Mexico over the past several years, and has even offered rewards to encourage the public to help identify the perpetrators of these crimes.  We have shared our concern about an apparent and emerging regional trend involving the directed violence against bottlenose dolphins. Most recently, WDC received word of yet another dolphin death involving a gunshot wound in the panhandle region of Florida just west of Destin, near Okaloosa Island, Florida. 

According to the necropsy, this incident involved an older male dolphin that was found with a bullet lodged in his shoulder near the back of his head on May 9th.

The panhandle region of the Gulf of Mexico is known by regulatory agencies and conservation organizations as a ‘hotbed’ area of harassment. Interactions between humans and wild dolphins routinely occur through close vessel approaches or through direct contact associated with commercial or recreational fisheries, swim-with, or feeding activities. Such interactions are of serious concern for wild dolphin welfare and conservation under the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act, as well as for human safety.

In recent years, an alarming number of dolphins in this region have been fatally wounded by gunshot, hunting arrows, or sharp tools (i.e., screwdriver). The harassment or ‘take’ of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) resulting from increasing opportunities to encounter this species in the wild through commercial or recreational activities which put humans in close proximity to wild populations is of growing concern within the United States. The take of marine mammals, including harassment and feeding, is illegal under the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), and concern is growing over human-dolphin interactions concentrated in certain coastal areas in the Gulf of Mexico where injuries or fatalities to bottlenose dolphins, specifically, have been documented.

These encounters, which bear great potential and risk for injury to the public and to individual dolphins and populations, may take the form of interaction with recreational or commercial fishing vessels and gear; direct interaction with humans through feeding or swim-with activities; or encounters with vessels during whale or dolphin viewing activities. Impacts to wild dolphins from these activities include conditioning and alteration of normal foraging and resting behaviors; disturbance and ultimate dispersal of populations from preferred habitat; injury from vessel strikes or directed harm, and reduced reproductive success, all of which can threaten survival.

Federal authorities continue to seek information relating to what appears to be a pattern of violence against dolphins along the coastlines of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Bottlenose dolphin stranding data maintained by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) show an apparent increase in the number of dolphins stranding dead with evidence of a gunshot wound in the northern Gulf of Mexico. From 2002-2014, at least 19 dolphins have stranded with gunshot wounds, with 63 percent of those occurring since 2010. These incidents are cause for concern considering the potential trauma and suffering experienced by individual dolphins in these cases, and also total unknown impacts on wild populations. The numbers of individuals recovered may only represent a fraction of total numbers of animals that may never wash to shore, strand, or become available to recovery efforts.

WDC is asking anyone with details about this incident to contact NOAA Law Enforcement at 1-800-853-1964. Tips can be left anonymously.