When Jason Bietz took his daughter for an outing on the seaside, he didn’t think about it will consequence within the federal authorities circulating a photograph of him, looking for to determine 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 provided a $20,000 reward for info resulting in an arrest, civil penalty or legal conviction within the July 27 decapitation of a sea lion at Level Pinos Seaside in Pacific Grove.
The subsequent day, the company took down the picture and stated that no mammal components had been taken from the seaside in spite of everything.
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 happened whereas he and his teenage daughter, who’s interested by marine biology, had been taking a look at a lifeless seal.
Rashelle Diaz, a Monterey resident who reported the incident to authorities, has a distinct 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 informed you we’re simply taking the pinnacle.”
“For what?,” she asks him.
“The cranium,” he says.
“To dry it?,” she continues.
“Sure,” he responds.
Bietz informed The Instances on Wednesday that he doesn’t recall precisely what he stated in the course of the July confrontation, however that it’s doable he stated “that I used to be simply going to take the pinnacle” as a “sensible ass, sarcastic comment.”
Bietz additionally denied accusations that he was carrying a knife on the seaside, saying that the thing photographed in his hand was possible both a stick, his cellphone or the lanyard hooked up to his keys.
Rashelle Diaz photographed Jason Bietz on the seaside with an object in his hand on July 27, 2025. The pair engaged in a confrontation over a lifeless sea lion on the seaside.
(Jason Bietz)
Bietz stated he reached out to NOAA investigators on Monday to clear his identify 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 components had been faraway from the seaside.
When The Instances reached out to a NOAA spokesperson for remark Wednesday, a reporter acquired an automatic reply stating that the spokesperson is furloughed as a result of federal shutdown and can reply to emails as soon as authorities capabilities resume.
The company’s preliminary submit had said {that a} man was noticed utilizing a searching knife to take away the pinnacle 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 pinnacle in a zip-style plastic bag and left the realm.”
That mirrored accusations Diaz made to native TV station KSBW in July. She informed 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 pinnacle in a Ziploc bag.
Primarily based on NOAA’s replace, Diaz informed The Instances that she now is aware of that the pinnacle was not taken from the seaside.
“I at present know that he didn’t decapitate it, though 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 in every single place, saying that he’s being falsely accused,” she stated. “However I feel I actually simply stopped him within the act. I caught him, after which he wasn’t in a position to do what he was planning on doing, which was my aim.”
Underneath California’s Marine Mammal Safety Act, it’s unlawful to hurt sea lions or gather any of their components whereas lifeless or alive. Violations are punishable by a civil high-quality of as much as $36,498 per violation or a legal penalty of as much as $100,000 in fines and as much as one 12 months in jail per violation.
Through the recording of the encounter, Diaz additionally informs Bietz that Level Pinos Seaside is in a protected space the place it’s unlawful to take away any gadgets.
“You may’t convey shells residence, you may’t convey crustaceans residence, you may’t convey skulls residence, 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 offered The Instances with a photograph exhibiting the clear cranium hooked up 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 attempting to guard marine life on native seashores and by no means meant to personally assault Bietz.
“My primary aim 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.”
