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.
Groocock estimates they were out there for about four hours.
“People lost socks, and shoes, and were covered in mud, but everyone just kept working together,” she said. “It was such a community effort to create a positive outcome for the dolphins.”
In a Facebook post, the Digby Fire Department said it was paged at 3:13 p.m. to assist Fisheries and Oceans officers with 16 beached Atlantic white-sided dolphins who were stranded in what’s known as the Joggins, a bay in the area.
“Our members along with DFO and dozens of community members carried out the rescue mission,” the post said. “We are happy to report that all 16 dolphins eventually were ushered into the water.”
The fire department said the rescue was “truly a community effort” and thanked everyone who helped.
In a social media post, the Marine Animal Response Society (MARS) said the dolphins became stranded as the tide began to drop.
MARS said it couldn’t send out personnel due to limited daylight remaining, but it enlisted the help of the other agencies and provided information about how to safely handle the animals.
“This was an incredible effort to save these animals and we are hopeful they will head out on the rising tide and make their way safely back out to sea,” the post said.
“Thank you so much to everyone involved – especially those in the community who dropped everything to mount this rescue!”
Groocock said she has always had an affinity for dolphins, and is grateful to have had the opportunity to help them.
“It’s not a way you would want a dream to come true, because they were in distress, but it was certainly — I don’t even know if I have the words to explain,” she said.
“It tugs at your heartstrings, and just seeing everybody out there was incredible.
“If I live to be into my 90s, it will be the story I repeat to everybody who comes to sit beside me.”