Courtesy International Fund for Animal Welfare
PROVINCETOWN – International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) rescuers were able to release four common dolphins back to the sea after a recent stranding.
First reports of the animals being close to shore came on Wednesday, August 10 in Provincetown.
IFAW officials stated multiple acts of human interference on land and by boat made the dolphins stressed before the response team could get to the scene.
The dolphins were monitored by IFAW for the rest of the day. The animals were spotted in Truro, but conditions were not ideal to rescue the creatures.
Responders spotted the dolphins near the Wellfleet Pier on the morning of Thursday, August 11.
With the falling tide and summer boat traffic, IFAW officials decided the best chance at a successful rescue was to direct the dolphins closer to the shoreline.
Rescuers led the dolphins toward shallow water to get the animals away from Chipman’s Cove, a common standing spot, with help from a Wellfleet Harbormaster vessel.
The dolphins were then put on stretchers and transported in IFAW’s mobile dolphin rescue clinic.
“Along the way, we gave them a full health exam, gave them IV fluids, and gave them some treatments to help them once they were released,” IFAW Director of Marine Mammal Rescue & Research Brian Sharp said.
The animals were brought to a site off Provincetown with deeper water.
IFAW team members released the animals as a pod and said the dolphins stayed close together as they swam out to sea.
Check out photos of the rescue below. All images courtesy of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
By Brian Engles, CapeCod.com NewsCenter.
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