A baby dolphin lost its way in the Keys. It took a smart move to reunite it with its pod
Residents of a small island in the Florida Keys tried several times to point a stranded baby dolphin in the right direction Tuesday afternoon before the mammal eventually reunited with its pod.
The mammal came ashore in very shallow water around 1:30 p.m. off Stirrup Key, which is part of the Middle Keys city of Marathon, according to a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission press release.
Residents called the FWC and tried multiple times to move the dolphin toward deeper waters, but every time it came back, sometimes to areas where the depth was less than a foot, said FWC officer Jorge Larios.
A pod of adult dolphins swam nearby, but were gone by the time the FWC arrived, Larios said.
He and officer Jason Rhoda called a marine mammal rescue group that is part of a local aquarium called Aquarium Encounters. That team decided they would move the dolphin to deeper water and follow it by boat to make sure it didn’t turn back toward shore or until it could be reunited with the pod, Larios said.
While they discussed the plan, the adult dolphins came back “and a member of Aquarium Encounters decided to act before the pod disappeared again,” Larios said.
That man, whom Larios did not name, picked up the dolphin and carried it to chest-deep water “where the presumed mother dolphin” approached him.
“The rescuer released the dolphin, which then joined and swam off with the pod,” Larios said.
This story was originally published January 15, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
