Bottlenose Dolphin Rescued After Being Stranded On Beach
When a visitor from Arbroath saw the distraught animal while driving along the shore at Nigg Bay in the Scottish Highlands, she immediately called animal rescue services.
Overnight, volunteers managed to rescue a four-year-old bottlenose dolphin that had gotten stranded on the sand as the tide went out.
Lorraine Culloch, a 38-year-old tourist from Arbroath, spotted the distressed animal while driving along Nigg Bay beach in the Scottish Highlands. She quickly contacted animal rescue services.
Members of the British Divers Marine Life Rescue and the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals found the female dolphin on Sunday evening. She was suffering from sunburn and blisters.
As veterinarians worked overnight to stabilize the dolphin, named Spirtle, rescuers acted swiftly by wrapping her in damp towels to keep her skin moist.
Once the tide returned at Nigg on the Cromarty Firth coast, they returned Spirtle to the water. Simon Wharton, an animal rescue officer with the Scottish SPCA, explained, “We were alerted to a bottlenose dolphin that had stranded on the shore in Nigg Bay over the weekend. We’re not sure how it ended up stuck, but it might have come into the bay to feed and got caught by the tides.”
“We placed wet towels over the dolphin and stayed with her until the tide returned, which was about 10 hours later,” the rescuer added. “It was a huge relief to safely return the dolphin to the ocean, thanks to the excellent teamwork of British Divers Marine Life Rescue and the local community.”
According to Colin McFadyen, the northeast region coordinator for British Divers Marine Life Rescue, the dolphin was very weak when we spotted her, so we had to wait for the tide to come in.
When we finally got her back in the water, she was still weak, but happily, she was still able to swim away on her own. – British Divers Marine Life Rescue’s Colin McFadyen
The towels were placed over her to keep her skin moist and prevent it from drying out.
Veterinarians initially worried about her sunburned skin but assured that it would heal.
Despite being weak, she managed to swim away on her own once she was returned to the water.
As a member of the Moray pod, other dolphins will aid in her recovery. Since the rescue, she hasn’t been spotted, but efforts are ongoing to locate her.
The heroic rescue took a total of 10 hours because the rescuers had to wait for the tide to come back in before they could safely release Spirtle into deeper waters.
Given how long the rescue took, it was devastating to watch Spirtle acting so unhappy. The wait for the tide to recede lasted ten hours. – Tourist Lorraine Culloch
After the veterinarian confirmed that Spirtle was fit for rescue, divers and the rescue team wrapped her in damp towels and seaweed to keep her skin moist, as reported by Miss Culloch.
Just days before, Spirtle had been spotted swimming with her pod and appeared to be in good health aside from some sunburn.
At 4 am, when the tide began to rise, the rescue teams managed to transfer Spirtle onto a floating pontoon. They then guided her into deeper water, where they gently massaged her body.
After spending so much time out of the water, Spirtle was quite stiff initially. We watched as she swam across the bay to rejoin her pod after being released into the ocean. Over time, she gradually regained her strength.
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