A dolphin that washed ashore in Louisiana was riddled with bullet holes -- and now federal officials are now offering a huge reward for to track down the party responsible.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service announced the dolphin's death Tuesday ... saying the mammal's body washed up on Mae's Beach in Cameron Parish on March 13.
The NOAA says it performed a necropsy -- an animal autopsy -- on the body ... and found multiple bullets lodged in the brain, spinal cord, and heart. A photo of the dead dolphin has been circulating -- although, it doesn't appear to show the bullet holes described.
Either way, officials are offering a $20,000 reward for anyone who has information leading to a criminal conviction or assessment of a civil penalty against the perpetrators of the dolphin's death. In other words, they wanna catch the bastard who did this.
Dolphin slaying is far from unheard of ... in fact, it sadly happens more often than you think. In 2020, Florida officials found a dead bottlenose dolphin in the Gulf of Mexico with a gaping hole -- believed to be caused by either a bullet or spear -- marring the side of its face.
As we reported ... another dolphin washed up on the Florida coast with a stab wound in its head back in 2022 -- when officials say the animal was killed while begging humans for food.
The Marine Mammal Protection Act makes it a crime to hunt, harass, capture, kill, or attempt to do so, to any marine mammal, including dolphins.
Violators face up to $100,000 in fines and up to one year in jail per violation.