A baby bottlenose dolphin calf that had swum too close to shore at El Trampolin beach in Ceuta was pulled from the water on September 2, 2026, struck on the head with a stick by members of a migrant group, and killed, according to witness accounts, local media, and video that spread rapidly online. The incident has triggered a formal petition calling for arrests, resident confrontations at the scene, and demands for prosecution under Spanish and European wildlife protection law.
The video shows men and boys hoisting the calf above their heads as onlookers cheered. Some in the footage shouted "no." Others appeared visibly distressed. Local residents who tried to intervene met the group in a direct confrontation at the water's edge. One man struck the dolphin on the head with a stick before someone eventually returned the animal to the sea. It did not survive.
Nadia Garcia Gomez launched a petition calling for those responsible to be arrested, announcing it with a social media post that stated the dolphin was "handled as if it were an object and violently struck on the head with a stick, causing its immediate death." She called the actions "extreme and unjustifiable cruelty that cannot go unpunished" and cited the animal's protected status under Spanish and European law. Ceuta residents have added calls for expulsion from the country alongside the push for criminal charges.
Migration pressure in the enclave
Ceuta has been gripped by migration pressure since July, when more than 70,000 migrants stormed the enclave's border defenses. Most returned home in the weeks that followed, but thousands have remained in the small Spanish territory on Morocco's northern coast. Tensions at El Trampolin beach were already evident before the dolphin incident: last week, local residents tore down migrant tents and shelters on the same stretch of shore where the calf was killed.
The petition filed by Gomez asks authorities to pursue criminal charges under the same framework, which classifies dolphins as a protected species. Ceuta residents have also pressed the central government in Madrid for deportations and expulsion of those shown in the video, extending demands that had been building since the July border surge.