It was low tide on the morning of 17 June when Amanda Magee, walking her dogs beside Lough Foyle near Magilligan in Co Londonderry, spotted a pair of Risso’s dolphins, a species rarely seen in Northern Ireland. They were stranded far out on the foreshore but she could see from their moving tails that they were alive.
She returned home to obtain a phone signal and passed on a precise location for the dolphins to Northern Ireland’s Dog Leap Animal Charity using the what3words navigation app.
After alerting British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) and marine-life experts at the Department of Agriculture, Environment & Rural Affairs (DAERA), members of the charity attended the scene along with Magee, her daughter and local volunteers who had turned out to prevent the dolphins drying out by setting up a chain of buckets of seawater.
The official rescuers did not reach the scene until mid-afternoon, by which time the tide was coming in. This helped as the 1.8m dolphins were carried back out to deeper waters.
One of the dolphins was older, scarred and underweight and was the first to be refloated, but it was said to have recovered rapidly and joined the other one when it was released. The area continued to be monitored in case a re-stranding should occur.
“Everyone was soaked and freezing but hearing these two dolphins talk to each other and to get to touch them was magical,” stated Dog Leap. “Fair play to everyone who came out to stay in the freezing water putting buckets of water over them.”
BDMLR confirmed that the rescuers had been correct to contact it and DAERA first, and warned others who found themselves in a similar situation to be especially cautious when moving around the animals’ powerful tail area, even if they were in a weakened state.
If a dolphin was on its back or side it needed to be carefully rolled onto its belly, as had been achieved by five volunteers with one of the animals at Lough Foyle.
And while large quantities of water were required to keep the cetaceans’ skin wet, BDMLR reminds rescuers that it is important always to keep the water away from their blowhole.
Volunteers’ faces should also be kept away from the blowhole, and their hands should be washed as soon as possible to prevent the transfer of any zoonotic diseases.
Also read: BDMLR ready as dolphin strands in Cornwall, Mass dolphin stranding in Aberdeenshire, Coastal walkers rescue stranded dolphin, Mass dolphin stranding on Anglesey
