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Racing against the tide to rescue dolphins

None of that was going to stop us from doing all we could for these animals. The mud trapped and enveloped your feet adding weight with each step, most animals were highly fractious when approached, and the heat became oppressive in dry suits and Covid-19 PPE. We began the grueling process of getting as many animals as we could into custom slings, onto the cart, and off the marsh as quickly as possible. After a quick scan of the situation - 45 animals widely dispersed, only a few staff members and several volunteers – there wasn’t a second more to linger. Upon getting on the scene, there was no time to react to the sheer chaos that lay ahead. The animals had been stranded awhile before the call came in, as all were already suffering from both heat and sun exposure. Tide was coming in quickly, and the day was getting hotter. With a stranding this large, it wasn’t feasible to extract all 43 animals from the mud, get them to our mobile veterinary clinic, and transport them for release at a more favorable open-ocean location all before the tide came in. In the meantime, our volunteers worked diligently to provide supportive care to the animals prior to staff arriving on-scene. Our trained volunteer responders arrived on the scene shortly after the initial report to give me updated information - 45 dolphins total, 43 of which were alive. Our team converged at our Rescue Operations Center in waves, grabbing all the specialized equipment we possibly could, as we piled into trucks and got on the road as soon as possible. Arriving at the scene of the mass stranding I immediately dispatched all personnel we had and sent out the call for any additional help we could gather. I wasn’t going to await photo confirmation. I asked the harbormaster to repeat himself sure enough, he was witnessing the dolphins himself. The harbormaster reported 30 stranded dolphins in one of the trickiest areas of Wellfleet, the infamous stranding hotspot that traps dolphins with its hook-shaped topography and extreme tides. August 9th at 8:01 am was the first time my jaw physically dropped when manning the hotline. Even still, I doubt I could have fully prepared for this call.

As someone who often mans the 24-hour hotline, I’m accustomed to early morning calls reporting various marine mammal strandings.