I bit my tongue for a few days until I was able to get some time to gather some information regarding the officer's conduct. If I were going to punish the officer and bring charges against the Walton County Sheriff's Department because of the officer's questionable conduct, it would be for a jursidictional issue.
Did the officer have the jurisdictional authority to shoot the animal? No.
Why? Because the whale species we are discussing here is on the list of threatened and endangered species made possible by the Federal Endangered Species Act and by the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, but it is not listed on Florida's version of these or any other state legislation.
He went beyond the scope of his employment in shooting the animal. Yes, he was providing protection for the people of Walton County because it was feared that it would attract sharks which posed a danger to beachgoers, but there were Red Flag conditions so there should not have been anyone in the waters to begin with, and if not he could have simply cleared on lookers from the waters by simply informing them of the dangers.