By Clara Harter, Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — When Jason Bietz took his daughter for an outing at the beach, he did not imagine it would result in the federal government circulating a photo of him , seeking to identify a suspect accused of sawing off a sea lion’s head and carrying it away in a plastic bag.

But that is what happened.

On Monday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries law enforcement office released a photo of Bietz and offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest, civil penalty or criminal conviction in the July 27 decapitation of a sea lion at Point Pinos Beach in Pacific Grove.

The next day, the agency took down the photo and said that no mammal parts had been taken from the beach after all.

Bietz, who lives in the Centra

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