The International Fund for Animal Welfare celebrated its 20th anniversary on Cape Cod with a dolphin rescue in Wellfleet. On a blustery November day, team members responded to a call reporting a stranded pod of dolphins.
The marine mammal rescue team has been rescuing dolphins, whales, and seals in danger around the Cape since 1998. Last month, I rode along on a milestone rescue in a van with four dolphins being transported to Scusset Beach in Sagamore for release.
"We’ve rescued four common dolphins from Chipman’s Cove in Wellfleet, and one of these guys is actually our five thousandth animal in our twenty years of operation," said Katie Moore, a member of the team. They were called at 7 in the morning to rescue the dolphins, who were caught in the mud as the tide went out. In the medical rescue van, veterinarians monitor heart rates, take blood samples and test the dolphins’ hearing. The animals are also tagged so they can be tracked.
"If they’re cited offshore, if the whale watch boats are out things like that, we’ll often get reports of tagged animals being seen, but it also helps in case one of them re-strands, we can identify which animal it was and it gives us a better history of what’s been going on with the individual," Moore said.
The dolphins are determined to be healthy, and Moore and volunteers from AmeriCorps readied the dolphins for release. Because of windy conditions on that day, the dolphins couldn't be released from the team's usual spot off Provincetown.
"We’ve had to come out to Scusset Beach for release just because of the weather conditions and the wind; easier for them and safer for the responders," Moore said.
The four animals are lifted onto rolling stretchers and brought down to the beach, one at a time. They're released in pairs, because having a partner helps them orient themselves once they’re back in the ocean.
The volunteers wade into the surf with the dolphins in plastic slings. Michael Moore, the team’s veterinarian who is unrelated to Katie Moore, stood at the shore to make sure the releases went smoothly.
"We’ve got one in the water now, with a couple of folks holding onto that one, the other folks are coming out with a stretcher," Moore said. He motioned towards one dolphin who had been particularly agitated during the rescue. "He’s settling down now he wasn’t too happy, and now we’ve got two more on the beach here," he said.
As he watched the dolphins swim off, he recalled how the rescue team began, as a group of three scientists, himself included, originally known as the Cape Cod Stranding Network. He remembered that their first assignment, rescue number one, was 20 years ago to the day, and was remarkably similar to the rescue they just performed.
"They just checked the stranding book and the first mass stranding was on 11/27/98," he said. "Three lags, which are white-sided dolphins, these are common dolphins...basically what we’re doing now is a repeat with a different species of what we did 20 years ago. It’s pretty cool."
He said the biggest difference between then and now is that the team has been able to improve mortality rates and outcomes for stranded marine animals. He predicted that the four males they released today had a high chance of surviving.
"I think success has been declared so far and we’ll follow the tag over the next few days and see how it goes," he said.
The team will now be able to track the dolphins for the next 30 days before their tags fall off. A ping later that day showed the dolphins just off the coast near Plymouth.
