Zackery Brandon Barfield, Dolphin Poaching, Florida 2023

A Panama City commercial fisherman has been sentenced to 30 days imprisonment for killing dolphins in the Gulf of America.

Zackery Brandon Barfield, 31, of Panama City, Florida, was sentenced to 30 days imprisonment and ordered to pay a $51,000 fine for three counts of poisoning and shooting dolphins in violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act.

The crimes occurred from 2022-2023. According to court filings and statements made in court, Barfield has been a licensed charter and commercial fishing captain in the Panama City area for his entire adult life.

From 2022-2023, he poisoned and shot bottlenose dolphins on multiple occasions.

Barfield grew frustrated with dolphins eating red snapper from the lines of his charter fishing clients. He began placing methomyl inside baitfish to poison the dolphins that surfaced near his boat. Methomyl is a highly toxic pesticide that acts on the nervous system of humans, mammals, and other animals, and is restricted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to control flies in non-residential settings.

While captaining fishing trips in December 2022 and the summer of 2023, Barfield saw dolphins eating snapper from his client’s fishing lines. On both occasions, he used a 12-gauge shotgun to shoot the dolphins that surfaced near his vessel, killing one immediately.

Barfield’s prison sentence will be followed by a 1-year term of supervised release.

The National Marine Fisheries Service Office of Law Enforcement conducted the investigation with assistance from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Zackery Brandon Barfield, Defendant, was sentenced to 30 days imprisonment and ordered to pay a $51,000 fine for three counts of poisoning and shooting dolphins in violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act.

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