Bayou La Batre shrimper admits shooting dolphin with shotgun

MISSISSIPPI -- A Bayou La Batre shrimper has pleaded guilty to shooting a dolphin off the coast of Mississippi.

According to federal court records, Brent Buchanan entered a guilty plea Monday to taking a marine mammal, a misdemeanor.

Court records indicate that Buchanan, co-owner and captain of the Seaweed 2000, shot a dolphin in summer 2012 with a shotgun from aboard the vessel in the Mississippi Sound.

A judge scheduled a Feb. 24 sentencing date and allowed Buchanan to go free on $25,000 bail. He faces a maximum fine of $100,000 and a year in jail, although the actual punishment is likely to be far less severe under advisory sentencing guidelines.

It is unclear what Buchanan’s motive might have been. Neither he nor his attorney, Vincent Castigliola, could immediately be reached for comment.

It is not the first time that Buchanan has found himself at odds with the law. In June 2010, police handcuffed him after he and other boat owners had used their vessels to block the Mississippi Sound in protest of what they regarded as unfair hiring practices by BP PLC in its “Vessels of Opportunity” program following the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The small boats effectively blocked work boats hired by BP from getting to the Mississippi Sound for about half an hour.

“I knew it was going to come to that,” Buchanan said at the time, adding that he brought two boats to the protest to “get a point across to the community. We need a job.”

Buchanan said that he was ticketed for interfering with police. He was eventually released at the scene.

(AL.COM - Dec 11, 2013)

Earlier:

• Alabama man charged in Mississippi with shooting dolphin with shotgun