Man faces music for shooting Dolphin!, page 1

One Gulf Coast Shrimper has come to regret shooting Flipper with a shotgun, I think it's quite safe to say.

This caught my eye and seemed worth sharing for two reasons. First, as upsetting as it ever is to read about a marine mammal being killed by reckless, foolish or just plain cruel humans? It brought a smile to see one held accountable for it. As it happens in this case? He pled guilty, too.

Brent Buchanan, 38, of Bayou La Batre, Ala., entered his pleas in the federal court in Gulfport, Miss., to a misdemeanor charge of knowingly taking a protected marine mammal, a federal crime under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Now the individual here is pleading to a misdemeanor and that may sound trivial...but it's not and I'll get to that last. The other reason I thought this interesting is what comes next in the article...

The case was investigated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Office of Law Enforcement, with assistance from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Air and Marine, the Alabama Marine Police, and Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Marine Resource Division.

Everyone recall the recent uproar over arming every Federal Agency in creation for their own little units? Well, NOAA has specifically been one mentioned in all that which really left me scratching my head for what they'd be in any law enforcement. So...THAT'S what they do in that direction! Now I suppose we know.

I'd say it's well covered by that long list of others without their own cops to help, but it at least tends to answer a lingering boggle about it.

Oh....and why pleading out to a minor offense is no small thing? Nothing at the Federal Level is small. Ever.

At that time, he faces a maximum penalty is one year in prison, a $100,000 fine, and a $25 special assessment.

Source

I'm laughing about the assessment. That's Uncle for ya. Always the needle sharp pencil to catch every last dime. I'd think the $100,000 covers my sense of justice. He'd spend a fair part of his natural lifetime paying that, if it's chased to the last dollar like say, an IRS or Student Loan debt would be.