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Rescue workers race to save stranded dolphins on Cape

E-mail|Link|Comments () March 11, 2010 05:44 PM

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Rescue workers are racing to save nine dolphins that are stranded in the mud in Wellfleet, according to an animal welfare group.

A.J. Cady, deputy director of the Yarmouth-based International Fund for Animal Welfare, which rescues stranded mammals on Cape Cod and surrounding areas, said his group received a report this morning of 16 dolphins stranded in two marshland areas.

Ten dolphins were trapped in the mud in Drummer's Cove and six were stuck in Lieutenant Island.

Staffers from Cady's group and the New England Aquarium loaded six of the dolphins -- two from Drummer's Cove and four from Lieutenant Island -- into rescue trailers, but workers could not reach the others because the mud was too deep, Cady said.

Rescuers hope to release the six dolphins tonight in Provincetown, pending medical evaluations.

Cady said one of the 10 other dolphins died, and the nine remaining are still stranded and may have to be euthanized, though workers hope the tide may push the dolphins out to sea tonight.

"There's an outside chance there," Cady said.

Michael Booth, a worker with the International Fund, was at both scenes today. He said that Drummer's Cove was a more challenging environment for rescuers.

"It was very muddy," Booth said. "These are mud flats and they were very, very hard to get out to."

The International Fund is authorized by the federal government to rescue stranded mammals on Cape Cod and the southern coast of Massachusetts. Last year the group responded to 207 strandings, Cady said, and so far this year rescuers have received about 100 reports.