The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has rescinded its accusations against a California man said to have decapitated a dead sea lion and removed it from Point Pinos Beach in Pacific Grove, California on July 27. This comes after NOAA Office of Law Enforcement Officials issued a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a man they said was responsible, which came with an image and description the organization has now removed.
“The individual has been located, and it was determined that no marine mammal parts were removed from the beach. We thank the public for their help and concern in this matter,” the agency said.
The NOAA’s initial version of the story claimed that the sea lion at the center of the strange ordeal was already dead when a man seen with a hunting knife sawed its head off, placed it in a plastic bag, and drove off.
Jason Bietz of Hanford, California was the man in the released photo, and he reached out to NOAA officials himself when he saw the accusations. He also contacted the Los Angeles Times in an effort to clear his name, all part of piecing together an odd story that includes the administration backtracking on the entire account, a passerby on the beach who apparently misinterpreted what they did or didn’t see, and Bietz himself saying he was making a “sarcastic remark” about removing the sea lion’s head.
Rashelle Diaz, a Monterey resident who reported the incident to authorities, had recorded an interaction on the beach with Bietz, believing he was about to cut the head off of the dead animal. Bietz and his daughter were reportedly leaning over and investigating the animal when she asked what they needed it for.
“I told you we’re just taking the head,” he responds.
“For what?” she asks him.
“The skull,” he says.
“To dry it?” she continues.
“Yes,” he answers.
Bietz told the Times it was a “smartass, sarcastic remark” and denies ever having a knife.
“I currently know that he did not decapitate it, even though he said that’s what he was doing, so that’s what I had assumed that he did,” Diaz told The Times, adding that she did see Bietz and his daughter carrying something away from the beach in a plastic bag. She assumed that was the skull of the sea lion.
“Now he [Bietz] is everywhere, saying that he is being falsely accused,” she said. “But I think I really just stopped him in the act. I caught him, and then he wasn’t able to do what he was planning on doing, which was my goal.”