Quintana Beach County Park officials said the animal was stranded off the coast of south Houston on Sunday night. According to Brazoria County, park staff were called in to keep the public away from the dolphin, but he died before rescuers could arrive from Galveston. “It was a long time before the perpetrators [gone] “and the animal was dead,” Quintana Beach County Park officials said, calling it a “tragedy.” The dolphin was taken for an autopsy, a non-human autopsy, to determine why it was trapped, the county said. The non-profit group of marine mammals says humans should not swim or interact with a neglected dolphin or whale, nor try to push them back into the sea. The regulations of the law on the protection of marine mammals prohibit the feeding and harassment of marine mammals in nature. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which works with the Texas nonprofit, says it will stay at least 50 meters away from such creatures. NOAA officials said they were aware of the dolphin’s death and are seeking information about it.
