More than 100 dolphins were stranded on a muddy beach off the coast of Massachusetts’ Cape Cod, but rescuers rushed to the scene and rescued most of them.
A spokesman for the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFA) said they were notified early on Friday that 10 Pacific white-sided dolphins were near the shore.
When staff and volunteers arrived on scene, they found 125 animals stranded in shallow tidal flats in Wellfleet, an area known as the “Gut,” or Great Island, of the Herring River, with 10 of them already dead.
The nonprofit group called it the “largest single mass stranding incident” in its 26-year history.
It took 150 people and 12 hours to guide the dolphins to safety, according to a news release.
“The dolphins were herded into groups in a highly coordinated effort to encourage their migration.
They first walked back into deeper water, then travelled by boat as the water level receded.
“High tide will occur at 4:56 p.m.,” the group said in a statement.
“Two IFAW vessels and the Wellfleet harbormaster continued operations until sundown at 8:15 p.m.”
All but 10 to 15 of the Atlantic Pacific white-sided dolphins Grows to about 8-9 feet in length “They weighed between 360 and 505 pounds and escaped into deeper waters before dark and we believe the rest have now found their way out,” a spokesman said.
Cape Cod is considered a global hotspot for mass strandings of live dolphins.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare responds to an average of 268 strandings a year, a spokesman said.
“Dolphin and porpoise strandings on Cape Cod are primarily due to the gently sloping sandy areas, large tides, proximity to abundant feeding grounds, the social nature of stranding species, and the hook-like shape of the Cape itself,” the spokesperson said.
“Many of the dolphins and porpoises that wash up in the area do not have clinically significant pre-existing conditions that would lead to stranding.”
