A Florida man who shot dolphins attracted to baited fishing lines cast from boats he operated was sentenced to 30 days in prison and one year of supervised release.
Zackery Brandon Barfield, 31, not only shot the bottlenose dolphins but also used poisoned bait after growing frustrated that they were eating from his charter fishing clients, according to prosecutors, who said the crimes happened in 2022 and 2023.
Prosecutors and federal law enforcement with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Barfield shot at five dolphins, killing at least one, and used poisoned bait on dozens more during outings from Panama City.
“He knew the regulations protecting dolphins, yet he killed them anyway — once in front of children,” federal environmental prosecutor Adam Gustafson said Friday in a statement.
Barfield’s attorney in the case did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday.
Barfield opened fire while two elementary school-aged children were on board and, separately, while more than a dozen fishermen were on board boats he operated, prosecutors said.
He used poisoned bait even more prodigiously, they said.
“Barfield fed an estimated 24–70 dolphins poison-laden baitfish on charter trips that he captained,” NOAA Fisheries said in a separate statement Friday.
NOAA Fisheries said it launched an investigation into Barfield in 2023 after one of its law enforcement agents received a tip that he was killing dolphins.
In an agreement with federal lawyers in which he pleaded guilty to two counts of illegal taking of a marine mammal and one count of federally prohibited use of a pesticide, Barfield admitted the government’s narrative of his crimes is true, court documents show.
The statement Friday from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida said Barfield was angered by dolphins dining on red snapper from his clients’ fishing lines.
NOAA Fisheries quoted the defendant as telling law enforcement he was “frustrated with dolphins ‘stealing’ his catch,’” the agency stated.
“He began placing methomyl inside baitfish to poison the dolphins that surfaced near his boat,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
The pesticide was used on about a half-dozen outings, NOAA Fisheries alleged.
“Barfield recognized methomyl’s toxicity and impact on the environment but continued to feed poisoned baitfish to the dolphins for months,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Barfield used a 12-gauge Remington Wingmaster shotgun to shoot the animals, prosecutors said. The mammals are off-limits under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
The National Marine Fisheries Service Office of Law Enforcement seized the shotgun, which will be forfeited under the plea agreement, according to court documents.
Though Magistrate Judge Michael J. Frank sentenced Barfield to 30 days for each of three counts to which he pleaded guilty, he was ordered to serve time for each concurrently, or in a single, 30-day stretch, according to NOAA Fisheries.
He was also ordered to pay a $51,000 fine.
