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Photo Essay |
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Dolphin Rescue! In late Fall 2005 there were a number of "strandings" of Atlantic White Sided Dolphins on various beachs and bars in Wellfleet Harbor and Eastham. There is an 11' tide swing during the new moon and full moon phases each month in Wellfleet Harbor ...one of the largest on the east Coast. For reasons still unknown, dolphins and pilot whales or "blackfish" get disoriented and find themselves in water too shallow to swim as the tide goes out at the rate of one foot every half hour. The Cape Cod Marine Mammal Rescue teams rushed to our landing at Chipmans Cove after I called in that there were 4 dolphins stranded on the beach with the tide going out. (This group also rescues sea turtles stunned by the cold at this time of year.) Please keep the Stranding Hotline into your cellphone if you walk the beaches in Spring and Fall: 508-743-9548.
Cars of volunteers arrived within 30 minutes. Here they are examining a dolphin.
The biologists determine that two of the dolphins can be dragged into the water and encouraged to swim away, but two others will not make it and are to be euthanized. Very often the ones that are pushed back in the deeper water just turn around and come back in (esp. if there are juveniles in the pod that have not made it back into the deeper water). In this case the two that were 'released' were found dead on another beach the next day.
This dead dolphin was taken back for study and necropsy. Certain waters, such as Chipmans Cove in Wellfleet Harbor, are likely to have several strandings each year. A large pod of about 24 pilot whales was stranded about 6 years before. Volunteers were able to minister to them while they were unable to move off the mud flats by pouring water over them and covering them with wet sheets to protect them from the sun. Luckily most of them were able to be 'herded' out into the Bay and survived. The geography of the Harbor is convoluted and this plus the rapid drop in water level with the big tides seems to add to the problem.
Dick Nicholson Copyright 2005 |
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