New York: A teenager in the US is widely criticized for his social media post holding a dolphin which was later found dead.
The 19-year-old posted on Instagram a photo of a dolphin calf in his hand clicking on Amelia Island in Florida's northeast coast, New York Post reported.
The young dolphin however was found dead on Wednesday in the same area causing outrage.
The incident led to a probe by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Committee (FWC) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The animal according to FWC report was bleeding from mouth and looked bloated.
However, Dr Quincy Gibson, an associate professor of coastal and marine biology at UNF, linked it to the animal’s decomposition process.
‘I think it's highly likely that it died after (the photo was taken), but there is a very small chance that it was deceased recently, when they picked it up in the water,’ Dr Gibson was quoted as saying.
The teenager however claimed it was an accident, defending himself.
‘Once in a lifetime to catch a dolphin as bycatch from the shore’, he reportedly responded thus to those criticised him.
Surfing enthusiasts were not in a mood to buy his arguments with one surfer saying ‘I was immediately enraged. It's a crime against nature’.