Marine authorities have spent the day working to rescue two dolphins that have been in a far north coast creek for more than a fortnight.
But the effort didn’t go entirely to plan.
While one of the marine mammals was captured the other made a getaway.
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Marine animals in a marine environment. Not malnourished, not beached, just dolphins being dolphins – and only a couple of hundred metres from the ocean.
Should have been LEFT ALONE.
What genius decided they needed “rescuing” and from what?
Dear Wendy, I believe the decision to move the animals was based on consensus from experts who have dedicated their entire lives to studying this species along with agencies that have dealt with exactly this type of incident on many occasions. For the record this is not a marine environment, it’s an estuary. The estuary has many man made features that make it far from natural. Dolphins that are in fresher water for too long suffer from a process called osmosis. Look it up, it can be deadly.
Happy learning.
Actually Josh, the decision to move the animals was based largely on guess work and who is to say whether moving the animals was necessary or even in the best interests of the animals. As postulated by some, the dolphins may well have been there for good reason, and of there own volition, possibly to protect the young one. And as for the estuary having many man-made features making it far from natural, I believe the same could be said of the ocean. The area of the ‘estuary’ the dolphins were in is actually mostly marine as it’s in an area of the creek that is well and truly tidal. Even though it has some freshwater input especially during heavy rain events, the normal salinity of that area of the creek would be sufficient enough to ensure these dolphins were fine for quite some time, if not indefinitely. Dolphins are frequent visitors to estuaries, creeks and river systems all up and down the coast and all over the world.
It really was such a wonderful and unique experience watching and listening to the dolphins at Kingscliff. I have footage of various days when they were peacefully playing and also of the “rescue”. I am working on a short documentary about the occasion and would like to do a few interviews. If you are interested please email me – sophiastacey1@yahoo.com.au