Community comes together to rescue stranded dolphins in Digby, N.S.
Global News
A local fire department, Fisheries and Oceans officers and community members came together to rescue a pod of dolphins that got stranded on a mudflat in Digby, N.S.
A local fire department, Fisheries and Oceans officers and community members came together to rescue a pod of dolphins stranded on a mudflat in Digby, N.S. Friday afternoon.
Linda Groocock, who was running errands in Digby at the time, was in a parking lot overlooking a bay area known as Joggins when she saw some movement in the water.
“I grabbed my binoculars … and it was a pod of dolphins, and it looked like they were feeding,” she said.
Groocock went to the shore to get a better view, and saw that some of the dolphins seemed to be beached as the tide went out. She contacted the Marine Animal Response Society, as well as some friends who might be able to wrangle together a dolphin rescue team.
Word began to spread on social media, and soon people began arriving to help move the dolphins back to water.
“It was just a huge effort of people keeping the dolphins wetted down with some towels and things, and also keeping them upright, because they tend to lean over,” Groocock said.
“I think they knew that we were trying to help, they were really quite calm for most of it.”
Some dolphins further from the shore were placed on sleds and tarps to try to get them to water. Many of the smaller dolphins were able to be towed out, while the team waited for the tide to come in to move the bigger ones.