Dolphins are a rare view in Essex, so when the report of two individuals in need came in, several parties sprung to help. During the early afternoon, the two striped dolphins had become stuck in the mud about 200 metres out from the shore of Mucking Flats to the west of London. With the tide going out further, action needed to be taken to rescue the animals from their treacherous situation.
“It was a real multi-agency operation”, David Cartwright explains. He used his hoverboard to shuttle volunteers from the coast guard, firefighters, the royal national lifeboat institution and the British Divers Marine Life Rescue to the location. It took around two hours to manoeuvre the dolphins from the muddy water into the fire services inflatable rafts before they could be ferried to open water. Another one and a half hours in the water went by until the first dolphin perked up and swam off, with the second one close behind.
Al Green from the fire rescue is thankful that the mammals seemed to be okay back in the open water. They had done “everything [they] could to help them on their way safely”.
A video of the rescue can be found here: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-england-essex-51206324/stranded-dolphins-rescued-from-mud-in-thames-estuary.
A written report can be found here: https://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2020-01-20/stuck-in-the-mud-essex-fire-service-rescue-stranded-dolphins/.
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