‘Mourning’ dolphin cow rescued

A TEAM of Walvis Bay residents put hands and heads together on Tuesday to rescue what was believed to be a mourning dolphin cow, which kept returning to the Walvis Bay lagoon to find her calf that died on Monday evening.

The rescue was a follow-up operation after about 18 bottlenose dolphins, three of them calves, got stranded in the Walvis Bay lagoon on Monday.It is believed that the dolphins were chasing fish in the lagoon, but as the tide dropped, the water became too shallow for them to return to the deep sea.Scores of people united to help the dolphins return to sea, and some people stood from Monday morning until the evening to ensure the animals were kept cool, wet, and stress free. By about 19h00 on Monday, nearly all the dolphins had been guided back into deeper water as the tide rose.One calf died, however, and its suspected mother kept returning to look for her baby.Every time she returned to the lagoon, she got stranded. This happened about three times. Eventually the mother returned at night and spent the entire night stuck in shallow water.On Tuesday morning about 10 men managed to get the three-metre-long dolphin cow into a net, keeping her cold and damp with wet towels and cloths. They then hoisted her onto a bakkie after which a convoy of about 15 cars made their way to Walvis Bay’s Independence Beach on the other side of the harbour town. That beach is the closest place where a bakkie could get close enough to the sea to release the dolphin.It is also far enough from the lagoon to reduce the chances of the dolphin getting caught in shallows again.Time was of the essence, as the dolphin could not stay out of the water too long, as it would die of dehydration and stress. The rescuers hope that the mother dolphin will now rejoin her pod and stop looking for her dead calf.Conservationist John Patterson, who was part of the rescue team, told The Namibian that such strandings have taken place on the Namibian coast before, but not at this magnitude.’The chances are good that this will happen again, but there is nothing we can really do about it except to be there and help when it does happen again,’ he said.Patterson said it was amazing to see how people from all over came together to help comfort and rescue the animals.’It was really satisfying to all of us to see her swim away after we released her at Independence Beach. We hope she won’t return and get stuck again. It’s really stressful to these dolphins,’ he said.

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