Martin Scorsese’s 1972 crime epic The Godfather popularised the term “sleep with the fishes” to mean an ominous end for someone who fell foul of the Mafia.

A bottlenose dolphin in Louisiana suffered a similarly bleak demise after it was found on a beach shot to death, according to a notice by the United States’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Fisheries Service on April 23.