Rescue teams from the International Fund for Animal Welfare worked tirelessly on Monday and Tuesday to help a group of bottlenose dolphins stranded off Cape Cod. The team found 14 dolphins at Linnell Landing on Monday, with three sadly confirmed dead. Despite their efforts to refloat the surviving dolphins, by Tuesday morning, the group was stranded again off Lieutenant Island in Wellfleet.
Kira Kasper, Biologist and Animal Responder at IFAW, described the situation as unprecedented, with 26 dolphin strandings in just the last two weeks. The team marked the surviving dolphins with temporary identification tags and fitted one dolphin with a satellite tag to track its movements.
Despite the challenges posed by the incoming tide, the rescue team quickly extracted the dolphins from the mud, provided necessary health assessments and treatments, and transported them to Herring Cove in Provincetown for release back into the ocean.
This recent event comes on the heels of another mass stranding at the end of June, where a record-breaking 125 dolphins were stranded off the Cape. While the IFAW managed to save most of the dolphins in that event, 10 sadly lost their lives.
The IFAW is urging the public to help support their ongoing efforts to protect marine life and respond to these types of emergencies. The organization’s swift action and dedication to marine conservation continue to make a significant impact in safeguarding the well-being of our ocean’s inhabitants.
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