Authorities are on the lookout for dolphin murderers after a string of dead dolphins with gunshot wounds, fins cut off, and jaws missing began turning up on the Gulf Coast, the AP reports.
The unsettling trend started about a year ago, with mutilated dolphins washing up on beaches in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, but has picked up over the last few months.
Just last weekend, a dolphin with a bullet in its kidneys was found on the Mississippi coastline, the Sun-Herald's Mary Perez reported.
"Animals don't eat each other's tails off," Moby Solangi, the executive director of the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies, told Perez. "We think there's someone or some group on a rampage. They not only kill them but also mutilate them."
A scientist from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Florida told the AP that she doesn't think the murders are being carried about by a "gang of people," or even just one person, since the cases are spread out.
Hunting, capturing, harassing, or killing any marine mammal is banned under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. Anyone who violates this act can be fined up to $100,000.
