Dolphin-napping tourist sparks police search

Police in South China’s Guangdong Province are looking for a tourist who strolled away from a beach carrying a stranded dolphin.

Uploaded video taken Tuesday shows the unidentified man walking on the shore of Hailing Island with the limp cetacean slung over his shoulder.

“It seemed to be dying, actually almost dead near the shore,” a local fishery official surnamed Chen told btime. com. “The tourist caught it and put it on his shoulder. Then he drove away in his vehicle, presumably with the dolphin.”

“No matter if it was dead or not… it was definitely wrong for him to take it. He should have reported it to local oceanic authorities,” Chen added.

Dolphins are protected in China. Local authorities are now investigating the suspect who may face criminal charges, btime.com reported on Wednesday.

“Even though it’s not considered poaching, this behavior is completely inappropriate,” Chen added.

A similar story sparked outrage in 2013 after a stranded dolphin died soon after being manhandled by photo hungry tourists in Hainan Province.

While it is unclear whether or not the tourists had directly caused the dolphin’s demise, experts advise not to pick up stranded marine life.

“If animals are stranded, there’s generally something wrong with them,” Erin Fourgeres, a marine mammal biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Marine Fisheries Service in the US, told National Geographic. “With that said,” Fourgeres continued, “we would never advise anyone to go pick up the animal.”