00:00A dead whale may have Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in hot water.
00:04In a letter issued Monday, the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund called on
00:07the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to investigate Kennedy over a report of him
00:12scavenging a whale's head.
00:14The story was first reported in Town & Country magazine in 2012.
00:18Kennedy's daughter, Kick, told the magazine that when she was six, so around 1994, her
00:23father used a chainsaw to cut the head off of a dead beached whale in Hyannisport, Massachusetts.
00:29Kennedy then strapped the head to the roof of the family minivan and drove it to Mount
00:32Kisco, New York.
00:34That story recently resurfaced in the media after Kennedy admitted to having left a roadkill
00:38bear cub in Central Park in 2014, staged to make it look like it had been hit by a bicycle.
00:44Now, the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund says that Kennedy's appropriation of
00:48the whale head may have been a violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered
00:53Species Act.
00:54According to the New York Times, federal law prohibits the collection of parts of protected
00:58marine animals if soft tissues are still attached.
01:01In its letter, the Center writes,
01:03"...vital research opportunities are lost when individuals scavenge a wildlife carcass
01:07and interfere with the work of scientists."
01:09It's not currently clear what species of whale Kennedy decapitated, which could be relevant
01:14to the legality of his actions.
01:16Kennedy had recently been running for president, but dropped out of the race last week and
01:19endorsed Donald Trump.
