A group of Florida deputies were caught on camera helping a stranded dolphin break free from a sandy bank.
Recently released aerial footage shows Lee County marine unit deputies searching for the dolphin in the Matlacha Pass, near St. James City Thursday morning after a fisherman reported the animal to Florida Fish and Wildlife. The Facebook video has garnered over 4,000 views since it was posted Monday.
Deputies say the area is a “prime hunting ground for dolphins.” Once they found the aquatic animal, they rolled up their sleeves and jumped into the water to help free the 1 1/2-year-old male.
“We think that it was chasing a school of fish with his pod and due to his inexperience, ran up on the shoal while chasing his next meal,” said a sheriff’s office spokesman.
It took about two hours to free and relocate the dolphin to another part of the pass.
The animal was uninjured and is said to be in “excellent health,” according to the sheriff’s office.
Michelle Marchante covers the pulse of healthcare in South Florida and also the City of Coral Gables. Before that, she covered the COVID-19 pandemic, hurricanes, crime, education, entertainment and other topics in South Florida for the Herald as a breaking news reporter. She recently won first place in the health reporting category in the 2025 Sunshine State Awards for her coverage of Steward Health’s bankruptcy. An investigative series about the abrupt closure of a Miami heart transplant program led Michelle and her colleagues to be recognized as finalists in two 2024 Florida Sunshine State Award categories. She also won second place in the 73rd annual Green Eyeshade Awards for her consumer-focused healthcare stories and was part of the team of reporters who won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for the Miami Herald’s breaking news coverage of the Surfside building collapse. Michelle graduated with honors from Florida International University and was a 2025 National Press Foundation Covering Workplace Mental Health fellow and a 2020-2021 Poynter-Koch Media & Journalism fellow. Support my work with a digital subscription
