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When Jason Bietz took his daughter for an outing on the seashore, he didn’t think about it could consequence within the federal authorities circulating a photograph of him, searching for to establish a suspect accused of sawing off a sea lion’s head and carrying it away in a plastic bag.
However that’s what occurred.
On Monday, the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries regulation enforcement workplace launched a photograph of Bietz and supplied a $20,000 reward for data resulting in an arrest, civil penalty or felony conviction within the July 27 decapitation of a sea lion at Level Pinos Seashore in Pacific Grove.
The subsequent day, the company took down the picture and stated that no mammal elements had been taken from the seashore in any case.
Bietz, who lives in Hanford, says he didn’t decapitate the animal. He stated the investigation stems from a miscommunication with a fellow-beach goer that occurred whereas he and his teenage daughter, who’s keen on marine biology, had been taking a look at a lifeless seal.
Rashelle Diaz, a Monterey resident who reported the incident to authorities, has a special reminiscence of the occasions. She says she confronted Bietz and his daughter after she noticed him leaning over the ocean lion and prodding it with a knife.
In a video Diaz recorded of the incident, she asks Bietz what he wants a lifeless seal for, to which he responds, “I advised you we’re simply taking the top.”
“For what?” she asks him.
“The cranium,” he says.
“To dry it?” she continues.
“Sure,” he responds.
Bietz advised The Occasions on Wednesday that he doesn’t recall precisely what he stated throughout the July confrontation however that it’s attainable he stated “that I used to be simply going to take the top” as a “good ass, sarcastic comment.”
Bietz additionally denied accusations that he was carrying a knife on the seashore, saying that the article photographed in his hand was probably both a stick, his cellphone or the lanyard connected to his keys.
Rashelle Diaz photographed Jason Bietz on the seashore with an object in his hand on July 27, 2025. The pair engaged in a confrontation over a lifeless sea lion on the seashore.
(Jason Bietz)
Bietz stated he reached out to NOAA investigators on Monday to clear his title as soon as he noticed the picture of himself circulated by the company.
NOAA then eliminated Bietz’s picture from its submit and famous that the person had been situated and that it had decided that no marine mammal elements had been faraway from the seashore.
When The Occasions reached out to a NOAA spokesperson for remark Wednesday, a reporter obtained an automatic reply stating that the spokesperson is furloughed because of the federal shutdown and can reply to emails as soon as authorities features resume.
The company’s preliminary submit had acknowledged {that a} man was noticed utilizing a looking knife to take away the top of a deceased sea lion round 8:40 p.m. on July 27. It additional stated that “after sawing off the seal’s head, he positioned the top in a zip-style plastic bag and left the realm.”
That mirrored accusations Diaz made to native TV station KSBW in July. She advised the outlet that she confronted Bietz as he was “decapitating a seal he had already skinned, and separated the cranium from the physique” and that he then eliminated the top in a Ziploc bag.
Based mostly on NOAA’s replace, Diaz advised The Occasions that she now is aware of that the top was not taken from the seashore.
“I at the moment know that he didn’t decapitate it, despite the fact that he stated that’s what he was doing, in order that’s what I had assumed that he did,” she stated Wednesday. She additionally stated she noticed the daddy and daughter carrying one thing away in a plastic bag, so she had assumed it was the cranium.
“Now he [Bietz] is all over the place, saying that he’s being falsely accused,” she stated. “However I believe I actually simply stopped him within the act. I caught him, after which he wasn’t capable of do what he was planning on doing, which was my purpose.”
Underneath California’s Marine Mammal Safety Act, it’s unlawful to hurt sea lions or gather any of their elements whereas lifeless or alive. Violations are punishable by a civil advantageous of as much as $36,498 per violation or a felony penalty of as much as $100,000 in fines and as much as one yr in jail per violation.
Throughout the recording of the encounter, Diaz additionally informs Bietz that Level Pinos Seashore is in a protected space the place it’s unlawful to take away any gadgets.
“You’ll be able to’t deliver shells dwelling, you’ll be able to’t deliver crustaceans dwelling, you’ll be able to’t deliver skulls dwelling, particularly,” she tells him within the video, to which he responds, “What regulation says that?”
Bietz denied accusations that he skinned the cranium of the ocean lion earlier than the confrontation with Diaz. He stated that he and his daughter discovered the carcass with the cranium already clear of pores and skin earlier that afternoon.
He supplied The Occasions with a photograph displaying the clear cranium connected to the ocean lion’s physique with the metadata stating it was taking at 3:42 p.m. — round 4 hours earlier than the confrontation with Diaz.
“She made accusations that I skinned its cranium, and I severed its head after which I took it with me,” he stated. “These statements have been 100% unequivocally refuted.”
Diaz stated she was making an attempt to guard marine life on native seashores and by no means supposed to personally assault Bietz.
“My fundamental purpose was to unfold consciousness concerning the legal guidelines and defending our beloved marine mammals right here,” she stated, “to not have this entire $20,000-reward-if-you-find-him-type factor.”
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