May 27, 2025 — For years, Zackary Barfield of Panama City, Fla., made his living on the Gulf of Mexico guiding fishing charters, often with dolphins trailing close behind, riding the boat’s wake. But when the dolphins began stealing red snapper from his clients’ lines, prosecutors say, the longtime captain turned predator.
Between 2022 and 2023, Mr. Barfield laced baitfish with pesticide and shot at dolphins from his boat, doing so once in front of “two elementary-aged children,” the U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of Florida said on Friday in a statement.
Mr. Barfield, 31, was sentenced this week to 30 days in prison and fined $51,000 for three counts of poisoning and shooting dolphins, violating both the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, according to federal prosecutors.
His sentence will be followed by one year of supervised release. Mr. Barfield pleaded guilty to the charges on Feb. 12, according to court documents.