Panama City fishing captain gets a month in prison for killing and poisoning multiple dolphins
Dylan Gentile- A Florida fishing captain was sentenced to one month in prison and fined $51,000 for killing multiple dolphins.
- Zackery Barfield, 31, poisoned and shot dolphins that interfered with his fishing charters.
- Barfield used methomyl-laced bait and a shotgun to kill the dolphins, sometimes in front of children and other fishermen, prosecutors say.
PANAMA CITY — A Panama City fishing captain was sentenced to prison for a month and ordered to pay $51,000 for poisoning and shooting bottlenose dolphins on multiple occasions.
A release from the United State's Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Florida said Zackery Brandon Barfield, 31, was charged with three counts of poisoning and shooting dolphins.
Barfield was a charter and fishing captain who was getting increasingly frustrated that dolphins were eating red snapper off of his customers' fishing lines. He shot and poisoned dolphins on multiple occasions between 2022 and 2023, according to the attorney's office.
Prosecutors said the captain put methomyl, a highly toxic pesticide that affects the nervous system, in his bait fish so he could poison the dolphins surfacing near his boat. He knew the effects of the toxic chemicals on the animals and the environment but continued feeding the fish to the dolphins for months, according to the release.
On other occasions, he took a more direct approach, prosecutors said, unloading a 12-gauge shotgun into dolphins that surfaced near his boat. According to the release, he killed one immediately but on other occasions the dolphins didn't die immediately after being shot at.
The attorney's office said Barfield did this once with school-aged children onboard and another time when he was with more than a dozen fisherman.
"The subject’s actions were intentional and heartless, and we'll continue to pursue any harmful acts against marine mammals," said Paige Casey, acting assistant director, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement Southeast Division. "Egregious crimes such as in this case have serious consequences."
According to court documents, Barfield had been a captain for his entire adult life and was aware of the laws surrounding marine mammals.
A separate release from NOAA said he poisoned an estimated 24 to 70 dolphins. It said Barfield's use of the toxic pesticide was harmful to the local bottlenose dolphin population and likely resulted in multiple deaths.
NOAA said the conflict between anglers and dolphins is well-documented in the Southeast with 21 documented intentional dolphin killings over 10 years.