Photo showing man holding dolphin in Florida goes viral. Is it legal to handle a dolphin?

A North Florida fisherman who kicked off a wave of online outrage and state and federal investigations for posting a picture of himself holding a dolphin out of the water has apologized and said it was a misunderstanding.

On Sunday, an image was posted to Instagram of a young man in Nassau Sound holding a juvenile dolphin several feet out of the water. The caption said, “Gotta do what you gotta do to catch a fish.”

The photo was shared to a surfing account and quickly went viral, to a backlash of condemnation. The man, who Action News Jax says is 19 years old, clarified repeatedly that he did not catch it himself. The photo has apparently since been deleted.

“Yes, I did pick it up out of the water," he posted in the photo comments. "We found the dolphin dead on the shore.”

In an exclusive interview with Action News Jax, the man stressed again the animal was dead when he and his friends saw it and he didn't realize he did anything wrong by picking it up.

Here's what you need to know.

Did a man hold a dolphin out of the water?

Yes. The man has since apologized and has said repeatedly that the dolphin was already dead.

“We couldn’t tell what it was, but it was rolling around in the surf, like in the wash," the man told Action News Jax. "We tried to see if it was still alive, or if we could revive it. There was nothing we could do.”

Then they snapped the picture, he said. Since then he said he has received countless comments and even death threats.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “And I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. And I did not hurt the dolphin. I wasn’t aware that I wasn’t supposed to touch it. And I would never do it again.”

Dr. Quincy Gibson with the University of North Florida's Dolphin Research Program told a TV news team that what appeared to be a 1-year-old male calf was reported dead by a biologist in Nassau County, in the same area where the photo was captured, and a comparison of the dorsal fin to the photo suggested it was the same one.

"I think it's highly likely that it died after but there is a very small chance that it was deceased recently when they picked it up in the water," she said, but added that the way people were behaving in the photo made it "seem like they did catch it and it was potentially alive at that point."

Does it hurt a dolphin to pick it up out of the water?

Yes. Like whales, dolphins breathe air out of their lungs rather than through gills. However, due to their massive size, they require buoyancy to breathe easily when they surface for air. If they're out of the water, according to whalefacts.org, the weight of their bodies may restrict or crush their lungs.

"A lot of animals, people don’t realize it, they catch them. And they say, ‘Oh, I want to take pictures,’ and they put it back in the water... and they die because they’re not used to being out of the water,” Jacksonville University marine science professor Dr. Quinton White told ClickOrlando.

Is it illegal to pick up a dolphin?

Yes. According to the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, which protects some species of marine mammals from human interference, feeding or harassing a dolphin can bring fines of up to $20,000 per occurrence to a max of $100,000, and/or up to a year in jail.

Was the man who picked up a dolphin arrested?

No. Earlier this week a news report said that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries was investigating the incident, and Action News Jax reported that the man has reached out to them himself.

Why do dolphins strand themselves on land?

Some whales and dolphins will strand themselves on beaches due to sickness or injury, bad weather, old age, navigation errors, lesions from freshwater exposure or simply hunting too close to shore, according to the Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida.

In March a pod of eight dolphins died after they stranded near New Jersey. In 2013 a viral infestation stranded over 1,000 dolphins along the east coast of the U.S. More than 260 bottlenose dolphins were found stranded along the northern Gulf of Mexico in the first half of 2019. In 2016, almost 100 dolphins of a species known as false killer whales stranded on the coast of the Everglades National Park, one of the largest marine mammal strandings in U.S. history. Last year, a dolphin stranded on a Texas beach died after beachgoers tried to ride it.

Along with illness, red tide and marine threats, researchers said high levels of rainfall and flood control actions have altered the flow of freshwater in dolphin habitats. Dolphins in the Gulf also suffered health problems after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010.

What should I do if I see an injured or dead dolphin?

Call the NOAA Fisheries hotline at (877) WHALE-HELP (877-942-5343), the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Wildlife Alert Hotline at (888) 404-FWCC (888-404-3922), or by contacting the U.S. Coast Guard on VHF Channel 16.

You also can use the NOAA Fisheries' Dolphin and Whale 911 app for the iPhone to report a stranded marine animal.

If the dolphin is injured, NOAA Fisheries recommends that you:

• Call the hotline or use the app to report it.

• Keep your distance, at least 150 feet away, and keep dogs on a leash. Getting too close can stress the dolphin. It's also illegal.

• Use your camera or phone to take a picture, which can help responders identify the species and the steps necessary to help it.

• Wait there if you can to help the responder find the animal.

• Don't chase or try to block the dolphin if it tries to move away.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Man holding dolphin in Florida Instagram post creates outrage