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Stranded dolphins ferried to safety

March 14, 1997
Web posted at: 11:55 p.m. EST (0455 GMT)

MANDURAH, Australia (CNN) -- It's not every day that a dolphin -- let alone six of them -- goes for a ride in a boat.

But when a pod of dolphins became stranded in a lake near Mandurah, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Perth on Western Australia's coast, they needed some assistance to get back to sea.

The bottlenose dolphins -- five adults and one calf -- had followed fish upstream last Sunday. When the tide fell, they were caught.

For five days the dolphins thrashed about desperately, trying to free themselves. Fearing the dolphins would become severely sunburned and exhausted, rangers decided to move in on Thursday.

Their first concern was not to distress the dolphins further. Officers from the Department of Conservation and Land Management moved in cautiously, trying not to panic the animals. There was the task of catching the slippery, splashing creatures. And then there was the matter of how to get them from point A to point B.

"Catching them, yes, that was relatively easy than we thought it'll be. But getting there, it sure was pretty boggy," ranger Phil Dunn said.

"They are stressed, but they are all together the way they are now, so as soon as we load them up and get them out to the deep point the better," said volunteer ranger Jessie Kilpatrick.

So the dolphins were hoisted up and loaded onto a boat for the six-mile (10-kilometer) trip to safer waters.

"They're relatively easy to manage in a situation like this where you have to transport them," said David Mell, chief wildlife officer for the Department of Conservation and Land Management.

Nevertheless, one dolphin apparently didn't enjoy the ride much. It thrashed about so furiously in the boat that one rescuer went for an unexpected dip.

Despite their ordeal, the dolphins suffered only minor sunburn and abrasions. Conservation officers will monitor the pod for the next few days.

 
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